


Feathers in the Wind

by unlockthelore



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff and Humor, POV Alternating, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:33:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 26,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25094644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unlockthelore/pseuds/unlockthelore
Summary: A drabble collection with varying themes and styles, taking place in canon verse and alternate universes, at times based on prompts or random thoughts.Recent Update15. Spelling Out Your Doom- Rin receives a visitor and defends her honor only to make another problem in the same breath.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Rin/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha)
Comments: 58
Kudos: 104





	1. Piece of the Sun (Sessrin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon his return, Sesshomaru seeks out Rin and learns about a story she’s told.

**Piece of the Sun**

Sesshomaru was hardly surprised to find Rin missing from her study. Jaken groveled at his feet while he passed with a heavy glance quietly demanding to know where she’d gone. Cautiously, the imp lifted his head and peered up at him. 

“To t-the quarters where the kenin reside, m’lord,” he warbled, clearing his throat as he blurted out. “I’ve told her more than once visiting them is beneath a lady’s stature, but she simply won’t listen!” 

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes and Jaken choked on another outburst, quickly bowing his head. Of course Rin wouldn’t listen, he thought to himself as he strode through the castle corridors, ignoring those who lowered their gaze. Sunlight tinted the shoji and brought the images on them to life, rolling hillsides painted in sun gold. The corner of Sesshomaru’s lips twitched upward at the memory of Rin painting in earnest. 

Colors streaked across her nose, the sides of her fingers, and her elbows when she finished. Tired and wanting, throwing her arms around him to the onlookers’ surprise, the wet paint staining his clothes and a chilled silence fell. When no punishment came, he could feel a collective breath taken but his attention was solely on his wife’s cheerful smile at her accomplishment. 

The ache to see her returned and Sesshomaru pressed on, leaving the castle’s main building to one of the others on the outskirts. It was smaller and less extravagant but reminded him of the village his half-brother resided in. Children ran about the dirt paths surrounded by trees, their mothers and fathers committing to chores, washing linens Sesshomaru had seen folded neatly and pressed to Rin’s hands from attendants he hadn’t put a name to although she did in earnest. 

By a few of the huts, doors open to allow air to circulate, children gathered on the veranda while a gaggle of women and men tended to the laundry lines nearby. Sheets billowing in the wind granted him limited view of what kept the children’s attention but he heard a voice, familiar to him as the blades resting at his hip.

Not minding the clothes lines, Sesshomaru brushed aside a few comforters and stared down at the woman on the other side who stifled a cry and clutched a few cloths to her chest. Her wide eyes and trembling mouth almost made him scowl but it couldn’t be helped. Many who tended to the castle knew of his reputation, wisely fearing what he would do if they displeased him. Even then she and the others nearby who stopped at the sight of him were human with remarkably low spiritual energy. They wouldn’t prove much of a challenge to him at all. More of a nuisance really. 

“G-Good afternoon, Lord Sesshomaru,” she took a half-step backward then bowed clumsily, nearly knocking her head against the hilt of Bakusaiga.

Sesshomaru’s gaze swept from one end of the line’s post to the other as they bowed to him. A low hum simmered in his throat, gaze flicked up to where a young woman in pleated skirts emerged from the flock of children at her heels. With her back to him, she crouched down and showed them something in her hands. Their chorused gasps of awe and excitement were dulled by her giggling and Sesshomaru was hard pressed not to smile.

“Ah, were you looking for Lady Rin?”

His gaze snapped back to the woman in front of him, wringing the cloths in her hands before handing them to the man crouched beside her. After wiping her hands on the towel tucked in the front of her obi, she cupped a hand around the side of her mouth, turning back toward the smatter of huts huddled together. “Lady Rin!”

At once, it was as if the sun had come out. Rin turned with confusion pinching her lips, one of the children clinging to her neck with a whine, attempting to distract her. 

“T-Tomoe, stop that…” The woman called, casting a wary glance up to Sesshomaru then away. “Lady Rin, Lord Sesshomaru’s arrived.”

It didn’t occur to him she couldn’t see him with the comforters on the clothes line blocking her view. Pushing one aside, Sesshomaru peered past it and met Rin’s gaze. Her eyes growing impossibly wide, mouth falling open then snapping shot. 

“Sorry, sorry, little ones,” she said hurriedly, prying the little girl’s hands from her neck. “I’ll come play with you another day, okay?”

A cacophony of cries and whines to say followed her as she leapt off the veranda, thanking the woman on the other side of the line with a squeeze to her hands, then grasping Sesshomaru’s sleeve as she pulled him away. It wasn’t until they were further away, striding through the open fields that he allowed himself to smile.

Often times, armed with momentary fascination and a journal, Rin absconded from their home to sate her curiosities elsewhere. Demons who swore loyalty to him weren’t very kind to her but Rin hardly let that stop her. Earning the favor of humans and several others with her cheer and infectious laughter, interacting with those _beneath_ her, despite her position as Lady. One of her charms, Sesshomaru deduced. No matter how far she’d risen in social status, Rin remained warm and welcoming to all who crossed her path. 

“You didn’t have to stop,” he pointed out, staring down at her as she slipped her hand in his own.

“Of course I did.” Rin shrugged, sweet and patient as she squeezed his hand with an upward wink. “Suspense is what keeps them coming back after all.”

Sesshomaru scoffed, not minding slowing his pace to allow her to tuck her arm around his to keep him close. The warm line of her body obscured by their clothes drew his attention. A familiar scent reminding him utterly of home and safety leading him to guide her to a less taken path beneath joined tree boughs allowing slivers of sunlight as she liked to play in when the mood touched her. Pinpricks of light danced across her skin, her eyes closed, long curved eyelashes almost brushing across rounded cheeks. He found himself staring at her more than the road ahead. Committing every last detail to memory as if it was the first he’d seen it.

Something smooth and hard brushed against his sleeve and he glanced down, noticing a stone in the palm of her hand. With her fingers curled around it, she shifted her hand out in front of them. “Neh,” she prefaced, always when she was going to ask him something mind-boggling. “Would you believe I had a piece of the sun right here in my hand?”

Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow and glanced at her then her hand. Absolutely not. If she were holding a piece of the sun, it would have burned her hand and how would she have gotten it anyway? Looking to her again, his silence seemed to answer her question and she huffed in mock irritation.

“So mean,” she whined, holding the stone to her chest. “You would doubt your wife that easily? I’m crushed.”

Sesshomaru highly doubted that but he found amusing how she sulked. Bottom lip poked in a sullen pout lasting for all of a second before she tossed the stone in the air, catching it in her palm. For something so _precious_ , she treated it with such frivolity, he couldn’t help but crack a smile. 

“Well, the children believed me. Although I’m not sure how the story ends…”

He arched a brow. That was new. Rin’s vast imagination often lent a wealth of endings to her winded stories. “No?” He questioned when she seemed lost in thought, slipping his arm from her grasp to set his hand against her side. Almost immediately, she pressed close to him, slipping her arm around his waist.

The stone held up between her thumb and forefinger as she angled it to catch the sunlight, its surface almost seeming to glow. “I told them it was a sunstone, fallen a long time ago after a fight between the sun and moon.”

Sesshomaru hummed. With a story like that, finding a satisfying ending _would_ be difficult. They passed over a wooden bridge overlooking a river cutting between the land, smooth rocks along its banks, gravel and sand trodden over by numerous trips by those who lived nearby. Rin’s footsteps slowed when they’d reached its center and Sesshomaru looked down at her curiously, hearing a thud and catching the stone rolling across the planks. A soft touch to his cheek, the smell of flowers and plush lips catching the corner of his mouth, stealing his attention. Chiming bells from the anklet she loved to wear reminding him of the difference in their height as he leant down to kiss her. 

_This_ is what he missed most. Unabashed affection, her arms slipping around his neck, smile pressed to his mouth as she kissed him again and again.Sweetness coated her lips and invited him with nip after nip until they were reddened and swelled. Rin’s giggles stammering his heart’s beating.

“Not interested in the story?” She murmured, a smile in her voice.

Sesshomaru scoffed at the suggestion of eagerness. Even if it was true. “ _You_ kissed me.”

“I told you you were missed, didn’t I?” Rin asked with playful exasperation, seeming to think on it for a second before adding with a breathy sigh. “Oh, I didn’t…” Another kiss filled the silence between them, his face cradled between her palms. “You were missed…”

He opened his eyes, staring at her from beneath his lashes, the blurred visage doing little to take away from the sight of her. Wanting to burn it into his memory for when she was here and when she was not. 

“As were you…”

He could hear the loud thump of her heart, see the moment her smile fell then returned with such brightness it almost burned his eyes. Nimble fingers working into his hair as she pulled him closer, pressing feathery kisses to every inch of his skin she could reach. Tucking his arms beneath her, he lifted her carefully and suppressed a shudder at the kiss to his forehead, delighting in the surprised look she gave him.

“Well now you’ve made a big mistake,” she said with a beguiling grin. “ _Now_ you’ll have to carry me home, I’m afraid.”

Sesshomaru chuckled softly, allowing the moment of expression to feel her heart skip and see the utter fondness in her eyes. He expected no less from her, telling her such as he cradled her in his arms. 

“Are you calling me predictable now? I’m _offended_.”

Predictable? Never. In all the centuries he’d wandered the world, he’d never met someone who confused him as much as she. 

“Take it back,” she whispered against the shell of his ear, warmth curling and settling as heat stirred in his stomach. “Or I’ll be mad.”

Mad? He raised a brow, almost willing to leave it simply to know what _mad_ was like for her. So often, he’d seen her cheerful and upbeat or despondent and sullen. What would her anger be like? Before he could make up his mind on the matter, Rin leant back and stuck her tongue out at him. “Joking. It would take more than that to make me mad, I’m afraid.”

What a shame. Although, he did prefer this smiling and happy Rin. Pressing a kiss to her cheek when she turned her head, he hardly expected her breath to hitch and the sharpness of her gaze.

“What was _that_ for?”

He stared at her incredulously. “You were missed.” Wasn’t that obvious?

Perhaps not or perhaps Rin was simply pleased by the slightest showing of his affection, so often he gave it to her, he thought she would be accustomed to it by now. If anything, she seemed pleased just as the first time he’d shown it. Her nose brushing against his cheek, smile hidden in a press of lips against his jaw. Hugging close to him with her face tucked against the column of his throat. 

“I have a piece of the moon right here in my arms,” whispered against his neck in a sing-song voice, her love-drunk giggling making him roll his eyes and clutch his piece of the sun a little tighter. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! I'm back on my bullshit as usual and decided to write smaller ficlets, or a drabble collection with different AUs and situations and themes, to gear me up for my longer works. 
> 
> This one was at the top of my mind since I started writing early in the morning. They're not proofread and kind of just written as-is but I'm pretty proud of it. 
> 
> Anyhow, Rin is Lady of the West and although not everyone loves her, she wins them over with her personality and a lot of what she does. Still a free spirit and Sesshomaru loves her for it without a doubt. Even her strange stories and habit of being affectionate no matter who is watching has persisted over the years and he adores it.
> 
> The story about the sunstone is one that appears in some of my works and I love the meaning behind it, so I couldn't help it. Also pointing out the dichotomy between Rin being the sun and Sesshomaru being, well, the moon.
> 
> If you guys have any prompts and ideas you'd love to see, let me know here or elsewhere.
> 
> As always you guys can find me on FFN, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Pillowfort at **unlockthelore**! If you want to read some of my original fiction, check it out on **Tapas**. Currently, I'm writing **Legend of the Four Elemental Heroes** , a litRPG Isekai novel with a bit of a twist.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. Sound of Indulgence (Sessrin + Light NSFW)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In search of a specific noise, Sesshomaru decided to indulge and recollect.

**Sound of Indulgence**

Sesshomaru never considered the value of sound until he heard Rin’s voice. Silence had its own melody, quiet its own tune, and their traveling companions their own sounds.

Yet Rin’s singing was a masterpiece with no equal. 

Her laughter could clear his mind faster than none other. Gentle murmurings of his name in adulation, hushed agitated grumblings, choked excited gasps, squealing joyous cries, they all resonate within his mind as their travels together resume and he finds peace in the noise she provides. 

Though, as of late, he had particular sounds he loved to hear from her. 

One was her conversation. Jaken had sorely missed her in the time they’d spent apart though he vehemently denied it to anyone who would listen. The pair chattering into the deep hours of the night while A-Un cradled Rin in the curve of his tail and Sesshomaru sat by her side — a result of the recent developments in their relationship. Developments which led his attention to the column of her throat bared by her long hair tied in a messy bun, curly black wisps framing her face brushed behind the curve of her ear by slender fingers. Beaded sweat glistening at her temple from the sweltering summer heat slips down the swell of her cheek, and he follows its path with his eyes. Disappearing into the collar of her yukata, blissfully thin as necessitated by the heat, or so she put it when she’d returned from the lake nearby and drew his eye. 

Her smile, mischievous and sweet, coaxed him closer but before Sesshomaru could sweep her away Jaken started up conversation. Blissfully unaware as to what slight earned him a rock to the head. 

Sesshomaru resolved to be patient but it was difficult. The sounds he wanted to coax from her were ones she wouldn’t dare utter in A-Un and Jaken’s earshot. 

When they were alone, she would take his hand without fear and press a kiss to his lips, tracing his marks with such ease that others would be killed for. 

Yet this was Rin. 

Even when she followed after him before, it was out of want rather than deference. To her, he wasn’t her lord in status but out of respect and friendship. Which made their changes interesting. Decorum and the like mattered not when it came to her, if she wished to care for him unabashedly then so be it. 

He could do the same in his own way.

Eyeing the way the burgundy yukata clung to her curves, snug against wide hips and tucked nicely against the swell of her ass, Sesshomaru wondered how much longer he would need to wait. Would it be too much to touch and how would his fingers fit into the dips at her hips? A curious sentiment no matter how many times he held her in his arms. 

Shifting his hand hidden beneath his fur, he dragged a claw along the curve of her spine. Rewarded with a sharp inhale, he lifted his gaze to find a pair of honey-brown eyes flicking toward him alight with flustered exasperation. Rin nudged his hand away, glare almost impressive then melting to a genial look as she looked toward Jaken as he questioned her with concern. 

Not a drop of guilt was felt when her glare flicked toward him once Jaken’s concerns were assuaged, but there _was_ something else. 

A desire to hear that sound again.

That sharp inhale preluding a moan, sweet crooning sentiments, mutters of need and wanton sighs. Noises Rin wouldn’t permit him with an audience, and how laughable it might’ve been to others that _he_ had to be permitted _anything_. But none have proven successful in gaining her favor or a place in her arms, and if Sesshomaru had anything to say about it, no one would have the chance. 

Nor would he squander his.

He stirred from his thoughts at a tug to the strap of his cuirass. Plush lips dance across his cheek then flit away as he regains his sense, noticing a lumped silhouette curled up by the fire’s dying embers, and Rin strolling from the enclosure with a slight smirk tossed over her shoulder. It takes a great deal of patience to hold still as the forest melds around her, taking her from his sight, but her scent is fresh. 

He could find her now if he wished but that smile remains at the forefront of his mind. The quiet command for him to wait, and oh how he found it beguiling how she could command him. Seconds tick by painfully slow before he rose to his feet, forgoing sparing a glance over his shoulder to see if Jaken would wake. 

It mattered very little to him whether the imp was aware of who he laid with. Modesty and games were Rin’s field of expertise, and Sesshomaru was happy to play her games. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this sitting in my archives for a little while and decided to whip it out. Technically, it was supposed to be a long E-rated fic but I wasn't sure if I wanted to write all of it. Therefore, you guys get this little snippet. Now this little diddy _should_ be named _thirst_ because that's basically what's going through Sesshomaru's mind but I digress. 
> 
> As always you guys can find me on FFN, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Pillowfort at **unlockthelore**! If you want to read some of my original fiction, check it out on **Tapas**. Currently, I'm writing **Legend of the Four Elemental Heroes** , a litRPG Isekai novel with a bit of a twist.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Inexcusable Excuses (Sessrin, Yōkai AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Returning to the Western Palace, Rin happens upon an irate Sesshomaru and finds the cause to be inexcusable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is from the **Yōkai AU**.

**Inexcusable Excuses**

Rin held out her arms as she soared through the air. A wide blue sky surrounding her as she rushed through the dampness of the clouds. Sable black feathers warmed by sunlight brush against her arms, cool wind currents carrying her westward. This was freedom in the most unadulterated term. Nothing to meet her at this height but the occasional flock. Endless skies opened around her, and a canvas of land rushing beneath the sea of clouds. 

A small smile tugged at her lips as she banked sharply to one side, curving through the clouded veil, the ground arching up to meet her as she shot up into an arc. Beyond the forests blanketed in patches of sunlight, cliffside and raucous waterfalls catching ocean spray on her feathers as she crested over their peaks, a valley blooming from hill to vale dotted with villages, lies a castle set upon a precipice so tall it nearly could vanish into the sky. Rin tipped her head back as she allowed her eyes to wander across its watchtowers, meeting eyes with soldiers who saluted or waved as she shot past. 

Her giggle lost in the booming rush of wind as she soared over sloping rooftops and beneath archways, startling some who were passing by. Hearty apologies drowned out in barrel rolls between posts and open doorways, shoji rattling in its frame. 

Familiar faces blur amidst unfamiliar, and yet none belonged to the one she was looking for.

Half a millennia of sneaking in and out of the Western Palace leant her knowledge of its layout but upon being permitted to traverse its better known pathways, she couldn’t resist flying. 

Wings fluttered, beating as she made her descent into the open fields of her favorite garden where a lone figure sat beneath an aged gingko tree bursting with verdant green leaves. Clusters of feathers surrounded her as her wings tucked close to her back, dew-covered grass wetting the soles of her feet with each hurried stride. 

To her surprise, the field was fairly empty. No one milling about the flower beds, tending or otherwise. Not even his retainer or the two-headed dragon who often trailed at his heels in earnest. With the wide array of colors and scents, narrow spaces cut around terraces and small patches of grass used for lounging — it was hardly a place to be sullen. And yet, somehow, he was. 

Standing with his back to her despite the both of them knowing he was aware of her presence. A sure sign of irritation. 

Shaded beneath the leaf canopies, Rin’s wings twitched as she approached and reached out to lay her hand against his back. There was an odd smell to him and her nose wrinkled but she pressed forward, cradling his sides between her hands when he didn’t turn. No longer did brackish tears roll down his cheeks when he became upset. Ever since he’d become a daiyōkai one hundred fifty springs old, those days were rendered memory. 

Yet still, she goaded him into turning toward her as if naught had changed, angling with an odd turn at his hips. Eventually, his body gave way to her pestering and shifted amidst the damp grass squelching wetly beneath his boots. 

A slight glower in his eyes, shadowed and distant. 

“Sesshomaru?” Rin called to him in a hushed tone, soft and confused when the recognition returned to his eyes.

He didn’t glare at her with discontent or brush aside her hands. Instead, his sleeves swept against her arms as he pulled her close, pressing her cheek against the solid warmth of his chest. A startled huff of a breath squeezed from her lungs — he never instigated hugs — or rather, he seldom did. The scent on him was much stronger now and Rin shut her eyes, concentrating on picking apart his usual musk from _this_.

Perfumed, almost powerfully so, and if her nose was correct she’d smelled this before on one of the lesser lord’s daughters. One that had been incredibly interested in being _chosen_ as Sesshomaru’s bride. A strange tremble went through her as she pulled away, staring up into his eyes sympathetically. Downcast and apprehensive, and despite his face giving away nothing, she read him all the same. 

Her heart cinched as he presented his cheek to her, a sideways glance filled with disdain. Rin pulled her lips thin. Dread pooling in her stomach as she sniffed his cheek, recoiling with a disgusted scoff. 

“… Did she kiss your cheek when you weren’t paying attention?” She asked, drawing her sleeve over hand to wipe at his cheek. Although her own smell was that of the forest, ocean spray, and sodden earth, it was infinitely better than _this_. 

“Mm…” Sesshomaru hummed in a deadened tone, his inexpressive veneer cracking as his eyebrows pulled together with the faintest scowl. Rin slipped her fingers free of her drawn sleeve and traced her nails over the incline of his marks. Golden eyes flicked toward her, softening and strangely bright. “I told her I wasn’t interested and she seemed to take it as a challenge.”

Rin rolled her eyes. Again, she thought derisively. Brushing off his cheek then patting lightly as if it would erase the deed. In truth, it was a distraction for herself. Irate thoughts buzzing in her mind like bees. A _challenge_? When would the world learn that forcing him to do something wasn’t the way, or _anyone_ for that matter? Justified anger on his behalf crept up and swelled in her chest as she thought of giving the young demoness a piece of her mind later. While it would likely result in a fight, she was more than prepared to fight on his behalf. 

Or perhaps it was because she felt a mighty need to protect him. Half-glaring at nothing and curling her fingers in his silken sleeve, Rin felt her face warming and wanted desperately to bury herself in his chest and forget. Propose a race so they could soar through the clouds together and forget all that laid below. An overwhelming _blah_ settled over the colorful thoughts and she barely noticed until her nose was buried against his chest that he’d hugged her close.

A soft “Huh?” muffled against the lining of his nagajuban, glancing up when she felt the weight of his head resting against her own. When his hold on her was secured, hands tucked beneath the fluttering wings at her back, Rin dared to sigh. Her toes pressing into the soft, cool earth and kicking up small clumps of grass, thin bands on her ankles ringing when she stamped her foot just shy of his boots. She swallowed anger and bitterness. 

Why was _he_ comforting her? 

Rin grumbled, turning her head so her mouth was freed while her cheek pressed against his chest. “…I’m still angry,” she murmured in a half-hearted protest.

“You can still be angry,” he muttered and her heart tittered in its beating. His smile was evident in the gentle airiness of his voice, clawed fingers threading in her hair, carefully working through damp locks. He never told her _not_ to be angry, nor how to feel at all. And from the tight way he held her to his chest, as if she would vanish if he loosened his hold in the slightest — she could tell he was angry himself. “But you’re the only one I want.”

Unconsciously, her wings fluffed at his words. Pleasant warmth prickling at her spine and the back of her neck, the colors of the garden blurred beneath her closing eyelids. Sesshomaru could be incredibly sweet when he wanted to, and no matter how tightly she tried to grasp it, the anger was dissipating. His affectionate hold drew softer sighs and giggles from her lips, soft lips brushing against her ear left bare from his nuzzling her hair aside.

A disgruntled groan warbles from Rin’s throat as she swatted at his back, curling her fingers in his kimono. “Stop that, I’m trying to stay angry.”

Sesshomaru pulled back and pressed a kiss against her hair, the deep baritone of his voice reverberating through her in a bell’s toll. “I made a promise to you.” He reminded, her brow arched until he pulled away. “One I intend to keep.”

Her hold on the last vestiges of angers loosened at the memory. 

A younger Sesshomaru, innocent in only the ways a youthful appearance could bring, holding onto her hands as she floated above him. He was remiss to let her go, but the days’ light was gone, and she had to return before Midoriko began to worry. 

It wasn’t in jest when she pulled him closer. 

Promising him that there would come a day where she would not have to take flight and leave him to go home. They would build one together. Where they could watch the sun rise and fall. A home where they would stand side by side, hold hands and smile. Not as lovers if he didn’t desire. But as friends.

His eyes shined in the amber light filtered beneath the leaves that afternoon. The same gingko tree they stood under now, where she promised she would make a home with him and he promised himself to her, letting her hand slip away. 

A cherished memory. One Rin kept buried deep in her heart, never to bring up again. 

And yet he had. 

Sesshomaru, who all believed to be cold and unfeeling, recanting warmly a promise made centuries ago. Gods, how could she be angry at that? 

Pulling away to meet a golden gaze, she huffed at the sincerity in his eyes. Involuntarily puffing her cheek as she glanced aside at the flower beds arcing around the grounds. 

“You could just say you love me, you know.”

She hadn’t seen what expression he wore and was prepared to drop her feigned ire to start up another conversation. Then, without warning, whispered words pressed into a kiss ghosted across her forehead. 

“…I love you.”

Clutching the back of his kimono, she cursed under her breath when he held her closer, his smile barely in view from her flickering glance. 

“Okay, okay…” She sighed, unable to hide a pleased smile when he kissed her cheek. “I get it…”

* * *

Unbeknownst to the pair, their image shimmered in the glittering reflection of an orb. A pair of onlookers observed, one in surprise while the other fond and content. The former, clearing his throat, looked away with his hand covering his mouth. 

“I feel like I just witnessed something private,” he said with a small amount of sheepish self-consciousness.

“Perhaps,” his co-conspirator said to him shamelessly, waving her hand to dispel the image. “But we know our son’s feelings.” Her fingers curled beneath her chin as she stared at the crystal ball’s surface with a charmed quirk to her brow. “That little bird is the only one he cares for.”

The Inu no Taishō smiled, lacing his fingers over his stomach with a self-assured look at his wife, lying back against his pillowed throne. “And he’s very steadfast,” he quipped, a toothy fang showing as his face split with a knowing grin. “Much like someone else I know.”

Her eyes widened and she shot him a sidelong glance, more annoyed than upset. So similar to their son was she in showing her emotions, drawing a belly laugh from him. While she set her belongings aside, he opened his arms, giving his best smile to ease her slight scowl. 

“Don’t be angry, Kimi,” he cooed, catching her raised brow and unimpressed look, adding on to hasten the blow. “I love you.”

That seemed to be what did it. Rolling her eyes to the heavens, she cast a slight smile in his direction then gracefully curled in his arms with her head resting against his shoulder. He would have been fine with that being the end-all. Deciding to leave the matter of discussing the lesser lord’s daughter to another time. 

Then, without preface, she hummed pleasantly and muttered, “… and I you, beloved.”

Glancing down at her, his smile faltered then returned with ache in his cheeks. He squeezed her a bit tighter, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. 

That was a phrase he would never grow tired of. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this definitely took a minute to edit but it was _worth_ it. So as you can probably tell - this is one of the AU verses I love to write in. Currently and probably for the rest of time it's called the Yōkai AU where as you can guess, things are _somewhat_ different. Rin and Sesshomaru are absolutely _precious_ in this AU and I kind of want to write that proposal scene. 
> 
> But there's certainly time for that later.
> 
> Anyhow guys, you know the drill, you can find me at **unlockthelore** on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Pillowfort. If you're interested in reading my original fiction, find me on Tapas. I'm currently writing **Legend of the Four Elemental Heroes** , a litRPG Isekai novel. 
> 
> See you next time!


	4. Rin's Game (Sessrin + NSFW)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unexpected revelation dawns upon Sesshomaru when he catches Rin, or more accurately, _she_ catches him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A continuation of **Sounds of Indulgence** , and as a **content warning** there is an mature/explicit smut scene ahead. Please proceed with caution.

**Rin’s Game**

It’s in Sesshomaru’s search for Rin that he remembers how clever she’s become.

Of course she was mischievous and enjoyed her games, but it was in these moments where she challenged him to find, win, and claim his prize, that her intelligence was unmistakably profound. He knew she was somewhere within the forest, never straying far from their campsite, but her scent dissipated near the lake she bathed in. 

Sesshomaru frowns as he wanders along the grass, springy and damp from the latest rainfall, concealing Rin’s whereabouts with its brackish scent. Humid forests threatening to plug his senses if he inhaled too deeply, and moss-covered rocks breaking his stride around the lake’s perimeter. The air was scented with flowers but not one was in sight and to his dismay, neither was Rin. 

Concern would have sparked in his mind if not for the knowledge of her ability. Fool as his half-brother was, he did provide a _rudimentary_ sparring partner for Rin during her younger years, or so she told him in their late-night talks. When the warm line of her body sidled close to his own, dark hair spilling over her folded arms, brown eyes glittering in post-coital bliss —

Sesshomaru couldn’t ignore the pangs of want and agitation as he glared about the enclosure. If she was hiding out behind one of the trees in the thicket, it would’ve been counterproductive to level them. 

And _desperate_. 

Yet _that_ is what she wanted, he was almost certain. Sweet and hospitable though she was, Rin’s mischief geared toward unraveling his control without pushing boundaries. Respecting him in the most backhanded way imaginable. 

Kind yet utterly devious.

Setting his boot on the crest of a rock embedded deeply in the dirt, Sesshomaru grimaced at his reflection in the lake’s surface. Clouds rolled in over the moon but he could see his expression clear as day. Narrowed eyes, angular marks beneath his eyes sharper, red tinging along the reaches of his sclera carefully receding. He forced himself not to think of her. If he waited long enough, she would tire of this game and the victory would be his own. Flowery scents made it that much harder to ignore though, wildflowers being Rin’s favorite to pick.

She knew so many of them from memory, delighting in telling him their names and purposes. Wiggling her bare toes in the soil as petals pressed to her palms. Lips pink as lotuses and parting when he pressed his mouth against hers. Kissing her slowly, a thrill plummeting heat in his stomach as she abandoned the flower she coveted so deeply in favor of pulling him closer. And he allowed her, allowed her to hold his face in hand, slip her tongue in his mouth and touch the tip to his own. Moan his name so —

Sesshomaru growled, removing his boot from the rock with such force that half of its stony face cracked and dropped into the lake’s still waters rippling across the surface. 

Enough. Rin would tire of this game or he would find her.

Admitting defeat would _never_ happen. He waited for a few moments to collect himself then turned sharply on his heel. Though just as he did, the clouds drifting across the sky revealed the moon and its light reflected off the lake’s surface. Silvery waters drawing his gaze to something small floating across the surface. Curiosity touched, Sesshomaru turned on his heel and stepped closer to the water’s edge, kneeling to scoop a handful of water in his palm. 

There, amidst the rivulets of water slipping between the cracks of his fingers, was a single petal almost translucent when he curled his fingers divesting it of the moonlight. Opening his palm, the moonlight reflected off its surface, translucent outline shimmering a soft greyish-white. He wrinkled his nose, eyebrows pulled together and gaze leveled with the horizon as he stood, allowing the water to slip from his palm but keeping the petal close. 

It was familiar but he wasn’t sure where from. 

_Don’t you know?_

Her cheerful voice in a lilting tone, teasing yet patient, as she twirled a stem between deft fingers then presented the flower to him. He saw nothing at the head of the curved stem nor did he accept it. Allowing her to demonstrate by plucking translucent petals, non-existent when set in her palm but quite real when he dragged his finger against it. 

_Their smell can be overwhelming but they’re beautiful in the night._

Sesshomaru’s eyes widened and he curled his fingers into a fist, staring down at the lake where several of the same petals were floating across its surface. A trap. He’d seen her collecting the flowers before, offering them to A-Un who was repulsed by the intensity of the scent. Jaken, who refused out of habit and trepidation. Then himself, and the scent was so overwhelming that she seemed to abandon them.

But she hadn’t.

_That woman._

Crossed heavily between pride in her ability and annoyance in being tricked, Sesshomaru scowled. He brushed the petal from his hand and strode through the trees, following the scent of the flowers where they were strongest. All the while assaulted by thoughts of _her_ —

Rin’s nails, blunt and biting, scraping against his back while she panted in between pleading cries. His hands grasping the underside of her thighs, angling her hips against his own to hear her scream — 

A steady stream of moans pouring from her mouth, curses muffled against the back of her hand, pushed aside so he could hear her voice in earnest. Tracing beads of sweat slipping into the valley between her breasts, her hand knotting in his hair. Assuring, encouraging, pleading — 

Hot breath fanning against his skin as she leant over him. His claws pressed to the supple skin of her hips while she moved, head lolled forward, dark hair spilling over her shoulders and obscuring her face from view. Spit-slick lips, reddened and parted, gasping his name in between intelligible words, asking for more —

“I didn’t expect you to take this long.” 

Her voice lurched him from his thoughts, phantom sounds and sensations of their intimacy dissipating, replaced with the image of her smiling visage set upon a tree-stump surrounded by a field of flowers. At the time, he thought nothing of it. She always seemed to happen upon them, drawn to nature itself, one with it as was her preference. Doubting her and her intentions in their daily goings was unnecessary but in the matter of heart and body, he should have heeded his instincts. Her eyes glinted, legs crossed at the knee, fist balled beneath her chin as she watched him. 

The distance between them steadily closing with every deliberate slow step, mindful of the flowers he crossed unlike the late afternoon. He hadn’t seen them before. Only felt the presence as she pointed them out but now that he saw them, saw _her_ — it all became clear.

“Admittedly, I was going to use these flowers for a little trial of mine,” she said conversationally, as if she hadn’t been driving him mad. Tossing her dark hair over her shoulder, she produced another one of the infernal blossoms from the shadow of her sleeve. Daring to bring it to mouth, the petals translucent allowing him to see the lotus pink of her lips. “Yet, you had to tease me. In front of Master Jaken no less.” 

Sesshomaru arched a brow. Did she expect him to feel guilt?

“Are you reprimanding me, Rin?”

The imp was his retainer, not his authority. Though he wisely said nothing, keeping his eyes on her and his senses trained on any other tricks she might’ve hidden. Wreaths of flowers surrounding the bases of trees, stretching high above their heads, allowing moonlight to spill through the opening where her lone stump sat. 

Sweltering heat was what drew her hair up into its bun, though now that it was loose and swept over the curve of her shoulder, he wanted nothing more than to tangle his fingers in it. Almost as if taunting him, she wound the fingers of her left hand in her hair while the right toyed with the flower’s stem. 

“Is that what you would like me to do, Sesshomaru?” She asked loftily, the sound of his name on her lips almost took him aback. 

Another facet of their relationship that had changed. She’d taken to calling him by his title less when it was the two of them, even in front of others, her familiarity was refreshing despite the attention it drew. 

But it was also part of her games.

Rin was hardly arrogant but she did possess some measure of pride, on a different level of existence than his own. In some ways, it was almost like a claim. A subtle declaration of her importance to him. 

And oh, did it bring her envy and him pleasure. 

With the grace of a warrior, Rin rose from her perch and strode through the flowers at almost the same pace as him. Sesshomaru’s pace slowing as they crossed paths and she circled around him. Barely flicking his gaze in her direction as she passed him by, twirling the flower’s stem all the while.

“Tell me, did you almost give up?” Rin asked, brushing the flower against her lips, her mouth curved into a cunning smile. “Did you think of me?”

Sesshomaru stiffened his jaw. He refused to answer either question but he couldn’t help but watch her lips as they moved. Sweat rolling down her temple, glistening along her collar, slipping into her yukata’s folds. Why was it so short, barely coming past her knee? How easy would it be for him to push it higher and bury himself between her thighs? 

An upward flick of his gaze met her eyes and he huffed. “Rin…” After a second, her hum thrummed in the space between them as her circling strides grew smaller and smaller. Her fingers almost brushing against the lining of his sleeve, slipping away before they could even ghost against one another. Looking down at her, his eyes narrowed. “I won.”

“Oh _Sesshomaru_ ,” she cooed, deliciously curling the vowels on her tongue, her smile coy as she stopped in front of him. The flower’s petals caught moonlight streaming over them, hiding the pink of her lips as they parted. “You weren’t even a player.” 

She tossed the flower at his chest, narrowed lust-darkened eyes reflecting his own thinly veiled amusement as he brushed it aside, barely needing to move his hand. Stepping toward her and to his delight, she took a step backward leading them into a dance. 

One step forward, one step back.

His eyes narrowed and hers crinkled at the corners in amusement. Thunderous heartbeat aside, her arousal was sweet beneath the blossoms — almost overpowering so. How damp would her thighs be, the slick between her lower lips.

A rich sweetness right there within his reach but not one he could take wantonly. Light barely filtered through the trees as she tread further into the forest, the droning _zreeee_ of cicada’s crying into the summer haze dull in comparison to her quiet sighs. When the leaf canopies grew too dense for light to enter, he could see her plain as day, standing with her back to a weeping willow. 

Its low-hanging boughs nearly concealing her beneath a curtain of green leaves.

Brushing them aside, Sesshomaru stepped beneath the branches, standing before her. The leaves fell behind him leaving them shrouded and hopelessly trapped together. 

“How far are you going to lure me, Rin?” Sesshomaru asked, aware of how loud his voice was in the forest’s stillness and wholly uncaring, inhaling the warm sultry scent of her heat. A subtle hint of honey beneath as she laughed, bringing her hands up to trace the cut of his jaw. Soft fingers dragging along his skin ease him into her clutches, his heart thudding as she sighs. 

Breathy and heated, a smoky richness to her voice as her mouth barely touches his own. “I already caught you, what’s a little longer?”

“Caught?” Sesshomaru snarled with a low growl, reaching for the knot of his belt when her hand slipped from his cheek and grasped his wrist in a loose hold. He narrowed his eyes, simply tipping his head in curiosity when she guides his hand away. 

“You can’t be disarmed,” she sighed, trailing her fingers up his torso as her lips brushed over his own. “How else can you protect me?”

He almost wanted to laugh. “You hardly need protection.”

“True,” she began with a haughty smile pressed lightly to his lips, only to grasp the strap of his cuirass and tug. “Leave them on. But _this_ has to go.”

Another order. 

A low growl rumbled through his chest, the vibration seeming to be to her liking as her smile returned. He would have taken his cuirass off regardless because it would render him unable to feel her otherwise. 

But was there a limit to her audacity? 

He wanted to know how far she would go, see those eyes darken and hazed until she could no longer play her games and ran out of tricks. Pressing one hand to the tree’s bark near her head, the other catching in the silk of her obi, rounding to trace a knot meticulously done at her back. 

“Does it?” He whispered, hooking his claws in the fabric, wondering what her reaction would be if he were to tear it away from her. “It’s purpose is for my protection. Do you mean to leave me vulnerable, _Rin_?”

He could feel the vibrations of her laughter despite the lack of sound, covetous hands coquettishly trace invisible lines from his jaw to his neck, hooking in the cuirass’ straps at his shoulders. Taking hold as if she were clutching reins, a sharp bite and tug to his lower lip eliciting a heady groan he could almost not believe was his own. 

“I can do that without you removing a thing,” she replied, releasing him with a flick of her tongue. 

Rin had a way of vexing him in a way none other could. He would never harm her, the very thought incomprehensible. Taking her with disregard for her feeling was repugnant and she would never trust him again. The very thought horrendous. Yet he refused to _beg_ for her favor. 

_I already caught you._

His eyes shuttered as the knots of his cuirass were undone, metal clinking just as his thoughts fell into place. Luring him all the way to this darkened part of the forest, where not even light could happen upon them, where only he could see and she was at a disadvantage. She set the stage and was waiting, dragging her hands down his arms, allowing him space to be. 

Deniability in surrender…

… Or she would drive him insane.

Sesshomaru grasped her wrists, hearing the hitch of her breath when he pulled them back to the straps of his cuirass. The words wouldn’t come but from her soft sigh as the knot came undone his intent came over well enough. Once it was pulled over his head and set in the grass with utmost respect, her hands caressed his jaw, thumbing at his cheeks. 

He didn’t need to breathe as much as she but he liked the way her chest swelled with every breath, an unsteady rise and fall, arousal captivating. Pleased she couldn’t see, he allowed himself to smile. Pink dusted her cheeks as he leant closer, caging her between the tree trunk and his body, yet for all her flightiness Rin seemed in no hurry to leave. 

He would let her if she desired but this sight, her warm breath panting and shuddering at the slightest touch, would make the next morning difficult. Inching his hand down the length of her yukata, claws grazing the seams as he thought to shred it simply for keeping her from his eyes. But he adored it and all it accentuated. So for once, he could prove merciful.

“Sesshomaru…” She breathed, pressing her fingertips to the underside of his ear, drawing his attention to slick lips and hazy brown eyes. It was difficult not to return the treatment given to him but her words returned to mind.

_Yet, you had to tease me. In front of Master Jaken no less._

If this was her idea of punishment then he would gladly tease her again. Unsure of where to touch first, he settled on caressing the underside of her thigh. Damp with sweat, supple skin melding to the press of his fingers as he lifted her, aware of the chime from his swords’ hilts knocking together, just shy of pressing against her knee. 

The cool brush must have startled her as she hissed, tightening her hold on his hair. Her eyes shuttered, breathing heavier as he settled her at a comfortable height. Thighs fit on either side of his hips, the cold press of his swords’ hilt against her thigh and he almost wanted to remind it was her decision for him to keep them on. But he couldn’t interrupt her shivering, panting breaths and pulling at his hair and the tie of his clothing.

“Just a touch, Rin?” He asked, noting how she bit her lip at the sound. “Where is your confidence?”

Her eyes, hooded and dazed, almost slip shut as he brushed his mouth against her trembling one. The hold on his hair tightened, and despite himself, he smirked. Abandoning his hold on one of her thighs amused when her legs hadn’t fallen from their height. Likely due to the security of her ankles hooked at his back. Pulling his swords free from his belt, he could see the moment she noticed her blunder. Their sheaths thudding as they fell near his cuirass, freeing his hands to explore the length of her body. 

“Se—!” Rin gasped when he pressed his claws to the inside of her thigh. She seemed entranced on trying to find him in the dark, trace the movements of his fingers as he delved closer to her heat. Abandoning his place with their mouths touching to press his nose against the hollow of her throat. “Se— _ha_!” He could’ve groaned at the sound of her voice and how intoxicating she smelled, or the salty taste of her sweat coupled with the sweetness of her skin. Pressing as close as he could, head buried against her neck as he kissed and dragged his fangs against her skin, eliciting shivers and muddled words. Half-utterances of his name lost in a cry or moan, pinning her hips in place with a press of his own when she tried to move against him.

Not this time, he wanted to say. She led him on a merry chase and even if he hadn’t won her game, she was there in his grasp, and that was victory in itself. His tongue flicked against her earlobe, careful as his fangs caught on the soft flesh, her left hand grasping his shoulder and tugging as he sucked and she moaned loud loudly. Her ears had always been sensitive, to sound and touch, body squirming against his own as he sucked and pressed a kiss to the space behind her ear. 

Her shivering body strained against his own and he smiled against her skin, loosening the tie while his tongue traced the trails of sweat beading from her temple. The tips of her ears flushed, hips shifting without finding purchase, but her squirming did have its effect on him. Her heart’s thunderous beating against her ribcage skipped in its beating when he angled his hips, brushing the outline of his cock, heavy and hot against her thigh. Her yukata falling open and the thin wrappings around her breasts were gone much to his delight, tugging the back of the yukata so it slipped past her shoulders, catching at her elbows and halfway down her back. The opening of it revealing her to him and his eyebrow raised when he found her wearing absolutely _nothing_ underneath.

Flicking his gaze up to her, the satisfied curl of her lips in a smirk only stirred the heat again. “I told you…” She sighed when he dipped to kiss the valley between her breasts, her grip on his hair loosening as she worked her fingers into the back of it. “You took too long…” 

In that, he had to agree. His hand pressed to her left arm, drawing it away from his shoulder. “Off.”

“ _Nn_ —” Rin groaned, squirming against him, brushing against him every so often to his delight and chagrin. “Do we have to worry about that _now_?”

Sesshomaru almost felt charmed by her excitement and eagerness but he would rather her hidden dagger _not_ impale him during a moment of passion. His silence must have given her an answer, her sigh guttural and shot heat straight to his core, fastenings undone and the gauntlet fell to clatter with his belongings. Her hand slipping into his hair in a purposeful hold, tight and unrelenting.

“Satisfied?” She muttered, gasping loudly when he rutted his hips against her. Her arousal wetting where her lips touched against his pants, leaving a thin strand connecting, a smirk formed when he heard her labored breaths. 

“Are you?” 

He trailed the fingers of his left hand across her exposed stomach, faint scars from years spent apart and together rediscovered as he explored her skin, waiting for the moment she opened her mouth, a moan falling from her lips as he pinched her nipple and rolled it between his fingers. 

“Ah…!”

Her hold on him tightened as his hand enveloped her breast, massaging and squeezing, tracing his nails against the sensitive skin around her nipple, pinching and flicking as she squirmed against him. Sweltering summer heat paled to the warmth of her skin, his tongue tracing along her collar, swiping across the reddened peak of her untouched breast. 

“Could you...” He asked, purposefully letting his words trail as he blew on the slicked nipple brushed against his lips, squeezing her thigh with his right hand. “Like this, Rin…?”

She grasped his hair tighter and tugged to no avail. He was never cruel to her but in these moments, he couldn’t quite help himself. Her cries and pleas, wanton moans as she squirmed, frustrated growls of his name into broken sobs. When he’d had his fill, pressing a kiss her nipple in parting, he surged up to claim her lips with his own. A sharp gasp allowing him to slip his tongue past her lips where her own met him unabashed in touching. 

Rin’s kisses varied depending on her moods and her desires. She could be sweet and gentle, giving him a peck when the others weren’t looking, a firm press when shy, or a slow melding when teasing or tired. He didn’t have his favorite but he preferred _this_ when they were trapped in this sort of embrace. Her hold on his hair only bringing a dull sense of pain, blunt nails scratching against his shoulder, hips straining to meet his own as she kissed with abandon — not quite surrendering control but allowing him to have a deeper part of her being. 

The drag of his nose against hers, her lips melding against his own in a way that shouldn’t have been possible but _was_. Inventive to the last, he thought as she found purchase in a different angle, muffling a moan when his clothed erection brushed against her lips. 

Sesshomaru pulled away reluctantly, a thin trail of saliva connecting their lips, Rin’s bruised and reddened while his own formed a smile. Her panting filled the silence as he rolled his hips against her languidly, savoring needy gasps and moans. 

“Sess— _mm_.. _nn.. hah_ … stop teas—” Her pleading was a song, words and half-spoken desires between panting breaths.

He returned to kissing her neck, grazing her nipple when she whined and pressing his thumb to the hardened nub to hear her gasp. Tracing his tongue along a delicate spot near her collar, sinking his fangs in when she was off-guard and holding her as she convulsed with a scream.

Her arousal peaked then and Sesshomaru chuckled when her head slumped against his shoulder, stroking his fingers along her thigh. 

“You’ll leave a _mark_ …” Rin hissed between deep draws of breath and Sesshomaru squeezed her thigh, feeling her jolt, a groan uttered close to his ear. Her thighs closed around him in a vice but he eased her looser with a light press of his hand, pleasantly aware the closeness of his body might’ve been the only thing holding her up. Slipping his left hand between her thighs, his claws traced along quivering muscle and soft skin, slick the closer he came to her heat. “Sess— _ahh!_ ” 

“Careful, Rin,” he warned, cradling her jaw with a touch of the lips, her scent thicker making his thoughts blur. Badly. He wanted to bury himself in her and bury his face against her shoulder, let himself drown in her sound and taste, but this was for her. He could wait. 

His claws dragged along her lips, slick and undenied as he rubbed idly, shifting his hand to press his thumb to her clitoris. Her hand pulling at the back of his kimono as she lifted her hips to grind against his fingers. His hand retreating just a bit out of her reach, a whimper coaxed from her throat when he returned. “ _Careful_ ,” he repeated, grazing her earlobe with his teeth as he slipped a finger inside, his words drowned out by a loud guttural moan. “Claws —”

“— Don’t matter, Sesshomaru, _please_ …” 

Sesshomaru couldn’t argue with her pleading. Rarely, as she did it. Rin never asked him for much of anything. She desired nothing from him. But in this moment, as he slipped another finger into her, mindful of his claws when he curled them and thrusted languidly to the rock of her hips, she was asking for something he would give and more. He stroked the sensitive bundle of nerves, rubbing his thumb against her clitoris, bracing himself against her as she trembled and shook. Whimpering cries, words of encouragement muffled in his shoulder until a sharp tug to his hair brought his head back from her ear. Her mouth meeting his. Fangs meeting blunt teeth, a satisfied moan startling him, not even a hiss of pain as she fucked herself on his fingers. Hips still moving despite his fingers stilling from surprise. 

His eyes shuttered, matching the almost frantic pace she’d set. Everything from heartbeat to the moans she let loose in his mouth to the wet squelch of her juices against his fingers couldn’t escape his hearing. He dragged his tongue against her lips after she bit his own, tugging before letting go, gasping when he seized her again. Her arms wrapped around his neck, holding him closer.

Didn’t she know he wouldn’t go anywhere else? What could compare to this?

A third finger slipped into her and she gasped, quickened breaths warming his lips as she thrashed, arching her back. “Nn— _mmph!_ Sess… Sess— _ah… ah.._ Sessho… _nnngh.. please.._ ” 

How could he deny her what she wanted? Burying his fingers to the knuckle, Rin’s walls tightened around them unrelenting as a soundless cry tore past her lips. Twice now, Sesshomaru thought as he watched her quake as he shallowly thrust his fingers, watching her dazed expression. Flush creeping along her cheeks, reddening the tips of her ears, a thin sheen of sweat drenching her, tongue lolling from kiss-bruised lips, heavy-lidded eyes watching him as he pulled his hand away and licked his fingers clean. She was just as sweet as he thought she would be and it was well worth the wait. Hooking a finger in his mouth as she watched him, keeping her gaze until he was finished and pressed close to her. 

Her breasts rubbed against the front of his kimono, silk cool despite the heat, and her whine lost in another kiss. Learning new things about Rin’s body, what she liked and what she didn’t, was one of his favored pastimes. Tasting herself on his tongue was one of her preferences. Her eyes closing as his did, the kiss almost sticky and messy, but he didn’t mind when she pressed herself against his clothed erection and ground her hips. Twice, he reminded himself, she’d likely be sensitive and not last long but from the challenging look that met him when he opened his eyes — well, this likely wouldn’t be the last time.

“Sesshomaru…” Rin whispered, curling her fingers in the tie holding him from her. He nudged his nose against hers. Not an apology but admittance. She seemed to understand, a smile pressed to his mouth, the kiss slower and softer than the ones from before. The arm still hooked around his neck shifting back, her fingers brushing against his nape. “Did you give up?”

Her moans and cries simmered heat in his stomach. Having what he yearned for in his grasp rendered his mouth dry, hands finding the curve of her thighs to keep her close to him. If he were honest, he’d been frustrated before. In wanting to find her. In wanting to _hear_ her. Wanting to be _with_ her. An ache settled in his stomach, knotting his thoughts, he wasn’t thinking rationally he told himself. Emotion temporarily overriding and that in itself was inexcusable but her question was different. She was asking something else of him. 

_Did you give up on me?_

Her whimsy had grown sharper with age. Asking meaningful questions of him without directness. Perhaps it was a quality they shared as infuriating as it could be. Still, Sesshomaru found himself eased from lust long enough to brush a kiss to her lips.

“Never.”

Rin smiled against his lips, and for a second, his heart fluttered. Her sigh muffled as he pressed kiss after kiss to her waiting lips, gradually moving his hips against her when she rocked against him, a sign of impatience. It was his turn to smile. Her giggle music to his ears, deft fingers fluidly undoing his belt, hakama adjusted enough to expose him to the air. A hiss soothed by her kiss to the corner fo his lips. He was unsure how she could calm him so keenly even when she couldn’t see him very well. Another one of her charms, he deduced as he lined himself with her womanhood, brushing his lips against her jaw as she tipped her head back baring her throat to him.

The mark he’d made against her collar reddened and healing but intoxicating. Her arms slipped around his neck, thighs squeezing his hips in a vice, pulling him closer as he pushed. With her entrance slick and inviting, he basked in her heat with a growl pressed to the hollow of her throat. Her own answering sigh and covetous touch against his hair _almost_ bringing him as much pleasure as her heat. As he sank into her, pinning her to the tree trunk, he grasped her thighs hard enough to likely bruise. An apology in a kiss to the mark met with a whispered one against the crown of his head. 

“Perfection,” Rin whispered thickly against the mark on his forehead, warming his heart as he stared at her. She seemed to take his awed silence as confusion and laughed softly, her smile lazy and soft, almost reverent. “You are…”

Fondness tittered his heartbeat but it was completely thwarted when she canted her hips, drawing throaty moans and sighs from them both. Sesshomaru snarled low and Rin grinned until he began to move against her, slow for all of a few seconds before her heat and the tightness of her walls loosened his control. Thrusts harder and faster earned him approving moans, unintelligible cries, her nails biting against his shoulders and pulling at his clothes as she rocked against him in a desperate attempt. 

“St— _Ah!_ ” 

His tongue swiped against his lips as he reached between her trembling thighs, rolling his thumb against her clitoris, angling his hips with a satisfied smirk.

“Se— _mm_! Ah… ah… _ahh_!”

Her back arched and he held her to him as he found that spot that made her energy flare and her eyes open wide. Seizing another kiss, messy and biting, though whether it was her or himself he wasn’t sure. Chasing after this high and the coiling heat growing denser and denser, maddening as he saw the end in sight. 

“Sesshomaru!” Rin cried out, his answering growl buried against the crook of her neck, leaving her to keep her legs in place as he thumbed at the bundle of nerves, snapping his hips forward to find that spot again and again. He wasn’t sure if he said something, if he said anything, but she knotted her fingers in his hair and cried. 

The heat flared into an inferno when he hears her sigh and feels her tighten around him, faltering in her pace with a choked off call of his name. His chin brushed against her damp shoulder, mouth turning toward her ear. 

“Rin,” he mutters, almost surprised by the roughness of his voice, but wholly not. She did this. She brings this out of him. And if — he stopped, feeling her push back against his shoulders. The sound of her gasping and crying, her hands angling his head, a kiss smothering the words he wanted to say, meeting her grinding with his own thrusts as the pressure built. 

He adored her.

She changed him.

He was close — close to realizing _something_ — and perhaps the answer wasn’t between her thighs but with how good it felt where else could he go?

“Sesshomaru _...”_ Rin called in that sweet voice, her heartbeat wild but the intention clear when she grips him tighter as if he’ll disappear. It’s too much then, looking her in the eye even if she couldn’t quite see him. He could see her. The intent beneath lust-darkened eyes, and perhaps she understands him better than he thought, because she kisses him in a way that at this moment shouldn’t have been so loving.

He held her thighs tighter, driving himself into her again and again, chasing _this_.

“Sessho— _ah_.. _ah_.. ma.. _aah!_ Don’t st—”

Rin gasped when he pressed his thumb to her clitoris, a sharp upward thrust making her cry out. Her body convulsing aas she held onto him, shivering and he squeezed, burying himself inside her and pressing his nose to her damp hair. He held her long after her trembling stopped, deep labored breaths, exhaustion as she pulled away from him. Tongue lolling from her lips, hooded eyes meeting his own as he kissed her again, rewarded with another groan that ignited a fire in his stomach.

The soft touch of her hand against his chest dissuaded him and he pressed a kiss to the bridge of her nose, slowly pulling his softened cock from her, mourning the loss. 

“Your back,” he muttered when he regained his sense, remembering the tree he’d taken her against. The sounds of the forest returning to him along with her gentle laughter, not mocking but _endeared_. 

“The wood was still damp from the rain..” She said fondly, cupping his cheek, a kiss pressed to the underside of his jaw. “I still have my salve if you’re inclined to help.”

He didn’t need to answer whether he would or wouldn’t as they collected their things, her legs swept from under her as he held her to his chest to tread back to the lake. Almost surprised by the clothes she’d left hidden beneath one of the boulders on the lake’s perimeter, endeared as she bathed in the cool water, coaxing him over. The moonlight allowed him to see the imprints of his claws on her thighs, where bruises would be from his fingers clutching her so tightly. 

Twinges of guilt assuaged when she glanced his way and smiled. 

“If it’s any consolation, your hair is worse,” she points out, directing him to look down at his reflection in the lake’s surface. 

Surely enough, his hair is a _mess_ likely from her grasping and running her fingers through it. Naturally Rin takes it upon herself to help him tame it and runs her fingers through to neaten it, though he suspects foul play when he sees a few braids sweep over his shoulder but she’s quick to correct him when they’re gone in a few quick twists of the hand. 

Their return to camp in silence, her burgundy yukata cleaned and scented with flowers, hiding the most obvious sign of their intimacy as its packed away on A-Un’s saddle. Sesshomaru seated where he was before, one knee bent while he reclined, a ghost of a smile on his lips as she curled up at his side, resting her head against his fur and her hand over his heart. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this took a minute to write. I thought I could have finished it yesterday but I'm still working on writing smut so it takes me a little longer. Anyhow! As some of you may have noticed, there's a lot of emotion running rampant in this one. Sesshomaru is trying to figure out the different facets of his relationship with Rin while also coming to terms with the potential of some. Rin is incredibly expressive even though in this she doesn't say very much. One thing I'm finding I like about writing smut is how they react to each other's bodies and how it correlates to their emotion. I think that's a pretty neat thing because you're baring yourself to someone else - mind, heart, body, and soul - so there are some feelings that overlap or are amplified.
> 
> Anyway, I'll try writing more things like this to help with my knowledge and my writing skills. Pretty satisfied with this one ngl.
> 
> As per usual, you guys can find me as **unlockthelore** on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pillowfort, and FFN. If you're interested in reading any of my original fiction, check me out on Tapas! Currently, I'm writing **Legend of the Four Elemental Heroes** , a litRPG Isekai novel with a little bit of a twist.
> 
> Thank you so much!


	5. Ashes to Ashes (Sessrin, Yōkai AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unfairness in opinion and action is what drove Sesshomaru to the dust but it’s her promise that helps him rise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is from the **Yōkai AU**.

**Ashes to Ashes**

Sesshomaru wanted to beat them all. 

All morning, he conducted his practices under the suffocating gaze of his instructors, doing his best to maintain form and intensity against opponents thrice his size. Stomaching bile roiling in his stomach when his sword connected with flesh. The song of metal clashing and sparks flying interrupted by wailing cries. Harsh demands for silence lead to his opponent being dragged away, not for treatment, but before their blood could stain the tatami and anger their Lord. Sesshomaru was reminded constantly of why he was engaging in training instead of _frivolous_ activities — the looming figure, revered and distant, who he had to match and best if he wished to be Lord of the Western Lands someday.

Protests fell on deaf ears. He had no desire to fill his father’s position. It would mean his father’s death and the thought was sickening. Yet, his instructors demanded silence and obedience. Even as the elder inu yōkai recklessly tore Sesshomaru’s drawings to pieces. In the few free moments he had during the night, painstakingly working by one of his mother’s lanterns, he drew his daily activities amidst pictures of girls with black wings coming down from the skies, and his mother’s melancholy. It was in hopes that his father would understand. Return from his latest conquest with open arms, spend the evenings underneath the gingko tree, or wandering the lands with them as he did before. Tears along the papers lacerated wounds across his heart, yet he dared not move, even as his fists trembled. The desire to tear this man to pieces buried beneath his skin. Out of respect and knowledge of their difference in strength. 

Fluttering pieces scattered in the wind, catching on the torch’s light, burning and sizzling in the silence as Sesshomaru kept the elder’s eyes. Once he seemed satisfied in his point, he dismissed him with a bow of the head and a _respectful_ call of his name. Guardsmen posted at the doors when Sesshomaru opened them to stride out into the halls watched with tentative stares as he passed by. However the elder disrespected him, there was a common understanding. If they pushed too deeply, not even his father’s wrath would keep him from slaughtering them. Still, that small show of deference was meant for understanding, and Sesshomaru walked stiffly and silently through the halls in search of _something_.

It took all of his willpower not to lash out. Attendants bearing full arms of folded linens and garments stepped aside as he passed. Eyes kept forward, head high and shoulders raised in spite of his desire to run and rage. The effort it took him to keep from tearing the shoji from its hinges was evident in the claw marks left along the wood but it snapped shut behind him, allowing him the full expanse of the inner gardens. Gardens only his family were privy to and in that, he allowed himself to lower his eyes, and release the tight hold on his hands.

Removing his boots to walk along the tall grass brushing against the knee of his hakama. Soil warmed over by the sun cool against his soles. It didn’t take long before he was rushing through the open fields, beds of flowers in a spread of white, violet, red, and yellow seeming to stretch across the fields broken by patches of green grass doused in the sun’s golden gaze. Trees dotting between, comforting places where his mother would sit with him and comb her fingers through his hair. Or stare aimlessly, waiting for a love that was elsewhere. 

Did his father not yearn to be with them?

Would he allow his banner men and attendants to look upon him this way if he were present? 

No, Sesshomaru thought as he threw himself down beneath the gingko tree, sunlight filtered through its leaves glittering between the cracks of his hand almost eye-watering blinding. His father would not allow this. He was civil, true. But he didn’t allow disobedience. Sesshomaru himself was not even two centuries old, not even possessing a fraction of his father’s power. Surpass him? It was almost laughable but if it would bring his father home — silence those who spoke against him — then he could achieve it.

He _would_.

His eyes slipped shut and he surrendered his senses to the droning _zreeee_ of the cicadas and _sssh_ of whispering leaves. 

“Hello down there….!”

Slowly, Sesshomaru opened his eyes to find a pair of pale brown ones staring back at him. His eyes widened. A girl hung from one of the gingko’s low-hanging branches, her hands crossed behind her head at the wrists, wings bursting with glossy black feathers shining in the sun rays tucked close to her back. Yet, she was upside down. Her feet hooked to the branch, seemingly unafraid of the dangers in falling. 

And why would she be if she could fly?

Her lips were drawn up in a smile and Sesshomaru firmly patted down the flutter in his chest as she unhooked her feet. Turning his gaze away when her orange pleated skirts fluttered as she descended, revealing the barest glimmer of her knee. 

“Sesshomaru…?” 

Protests of modesty which weren’t his own but ingrained in the back of his mind were stifled. It wasn’t as if she would listen to him anyhow. Unlike him, she was free to go where she pleased and do as she liked. Misplaced irritation pricked at his heart as she knelt in the grass beside his head. Scrambling up to his elbows, he kept his gaze pointedly aware from her. She wasn’t who he was angry with but he was irritated all the same. The freedom she had. What would it be like to possess it? Why did she keep coming back to this place which was almost a prison? Questions on his tongue stifled as a delicate touch traced a path from his wrist to his forearm before setting on his shoulder, palm searingly hot against the thin sleeve of his gi. 

His heart stammered, and the view of the gardens was obscured by thick dark-brown hair smelling of flower blossoms and rosewood, along with Bokuseno’s magnolia-covered boughs. Anger seemed to dissolve as her arms tucked beneath his own and her head settled in the crook of his shoulder, half-lying in his lap, unabashedly taking up space near him with disregard. His heart stuttered as she squeezed him, warm breath fanning across the hollow of his throat.

It would have been easy to push away from her. Although, he’d never done so before. Preferring to simply remain and allow her to hold him as long as she wanted. But why? He owed her nothing and she was a passing convenience. Someone who answered naught to his father or mother, nor the attendants and the instructors who wielded their wisdom over his head. She was unfettered and untouched, free as the wind, a bird constantly in flight who stopped for just a moment to entertain him. Her squeeze was not enough to harm but it did push uncomfortable feelings deep from his chest. 

So long ago did he feel the need to cry but that had been quickly stamped out with no hope to return. After all, the Inu no Taishō showed no weakness so how could his son?

The girl pulled away, her unsettlingly deep brown eyes boring into his own, shrewd but amiable. He watched the understanding flicker onto her face and his heart trembled. Not a word was said but she palmed his cheek, tracing a thumb against the curve of his mark. Accurate recollections of the first time she asked to touch them in exchange for her allowing him to touch her wings. He drew the line at his fur, almost concerned she would be upset, but she laughed and agreed.

A boundary set. An understanding.

_We’re friends, aren’t we, Sesshomaru?_

A strange tremble rushed through him. Cracks in his armor growing, creating fissures that allowed _something_ to leak out. It must have startled her because she hugged him tighter, drawing him in close, his mouth hidden against the curve of her shoulder. Small dotted freckles along her skin, blemishes in some’s eyes but it reminded him of the stars at night. They blurred beneath the veil of tears he would never allow to fall. 

“I’m sorry…”

Sesshomaru closed his eyes tightly, willing the tears away. “You did nothing…” 

“That is the problem.”

She was always like this. Half-spoken words, half-uttered truths, and he couldn’t make heads or tails of either. When he opened his mouth to ask, the words died on his tongue. Her fingers slipping into his hair, chin brushing against his cheek and he could hear her breathe. A soft sigh touching the curve of his ear. 

“Do you want me to sit with you?”

Her voice was impossibly loud near his ear, drowning out his thoughts and he mutely nodded, allowing her to occupy his thigh as she held him close to her. His arms trembled with trepidation as he encircled her waist, holding her close to him. She voiced no refusal, instead drawing her hands back to his jaw, tipping his head up from the richly scented comfort of her shoulder. 

“Sesshomaru…” She started, his name rolling off her tongue in a way that caught his attention and kept it all at once. “You are good….” 

Good? He opened his eyes, looking at her in confusion and ebbing doubt. Someone who was _good_ would have ended their insolence from the beginning. They would have dragged his father back by his ear. Presented him to the reality of what his life was like. The hells he endured simply for — 

Sesshomaru gritted his teeth and turned his head away, breaking her hold and she made no move to return him to her, instead letting her hands fall to his shoulders. “… What do you know?”

She was a sneaky sort. Once telling him that she knew different ways in and out of the palace. As much as it left him curious, he also was hesitant to trust her. If she knew ways out and in, then she could just have likely led enemies or been one herself. And yet, here she was. 

“Your father is busy…” She starts, and his head whips around to her, meeting her impassive gaze with red tinging his own. Had she been listening the whole time? “But he would love to see your drawings.”

Distrust burdened his heart but there was a small flicker. Hope. Sickeningly sweet as was her smile, soft and reassuring, attempting to lower his guard and he loathed that it was _working_. Pride hardening, he turned his gaze away and tried to will his arms to push her off of him. He’d heard enough of her whimsy for one day and would have rather be alone but her hands touched his jaw and guided his head back to her when he turned away. 

Insolence, but he felt no desire to kill her. 

“Hide your drawings and the letters you want to send to your father, and I’ll take them to him.”

Sesshomaru swallowed his malcontent, eyebrows furrowing. “… How?”

Her eyes glimmered. A knowing and infuriating look, soft hands slipping from his cheeks like water rolling down his back, rising to her feet gracefully instead of that clumsy way she’d often do as she laughed. Slowly, she reached back to her feathers, extending them as far as they would. Her hand finding one of the feathers and with a slight wince that dredged some worry in his chest, she handed him a single feather.

“… Hide them, and wave this over it, I will find them and take them to him without fail.”

Sesshomaru glanced between her and the feather, wholly disbelieving. How would she traverse the entirety of his father’s lands to find him? What if she were a spy or an usurper sent from someone else or one of the enemies in his own home? He watched her closely as he held out his hand, the feather set in his palm, fragile and breathtakingly light.

Before he could inquire further, there was a noise off in one of the main corridors and her wings fluffed in response. He knew what was coming before she voiced it, but was surprised as she dipped down swiftly and left a kiss to his cheek. The skin her lips touched was warm and cool at the same time, his heart stuttered and he stared up at her as she lifted into the air. Dark wings extended, outlined by the sun.

“I’ll see you again, okay?” She said, turning her head toward the sky and a rising panic surged Sesshomaru to his feet.

“Will you?”

She looked down at him, mirroring the surprise he felt in himself, but instead of laughing —- she smiled. Floating closer to him and leaning down, their noses barely brushing.

“I will.”

She tipped her head up, her lips brushing just shy of the mark on his forehead, and he held his breath. Meeting her gaze when she pulled away, smiling with a hearty, “Until then.”

He stared up at the sky long after she was gone, cradling the feather close to his chest, and allowed himself to smile. 

* * *

Toga’s fur rippled in the tempest as he descended to the earth. Ozone, rusting iron, and ringing screams filled his senses and he sighed raggedly at the scores of bodies littered the arid field. Wave after nigh endless wave of soldiers with nothing to show but blood and dust. He would have hoped their reserves were emptied, morale dampened, but perhaps their hatred was simply that great. To withstand even watching the last of their banner men fall at his hands. A thick smoky scent drew his attention to the looming shadow of his retainer, Totōsai gazing up at the sky with his swords bundled close to his back.

“It seems we have a visitor, m’lord.”

A visitor? 

Toga looked to the skies. Clouded with ash and dust, he could hardly the blue anymore but out of the ashen screen, a dark shadow emerged plummeting toward the ground. His heart leapt into his throat at her outstretched hands and beaming smile. 

“Lord Toga!”

Unabashedly, small arms slipped around his shoulders and held him in a vice-grip. Habit leading him to spin her in a lazy arc, unfitting for the battlefield, and he was grateful that the few of his men retreated to their camps for a momentary rest. Only Myoga and Totōsai baring witness to the giggling girl clinging to him with abandon. 

“Rin?” Toga asked in a hushed tone, careful not to say her name any louder, a small smile tugged at his lips when she kissed his cheek in greeting. Careful of her skirts and the hanging white of her sleeves, he knelt and set her atop his knee. “What are you doing here, child?”

In answer, she held out a scroll to him, chirping happily. “This is for you.”

Toga glanced up at Totōsai confusedly then took it with a softened thanks. Examining the knobs, his eyebrows raised at the sight of a crescent moon. “From… Sesshomaru?”

Kimi would never have sent him a message like this. Hers often coming in the form of dazed animals whose mouths opened and resounded her voice. As was his wife’s magic. As he moved to undo the tie keeping the scroll shut, a copper-brown hand laid over his own. 

“Lord Toga…” Rin asked, her chipper tone deadened not something soft and serious, almost troubled. “If I finish this, will you return to the West?”

Toga hoped he’d been subtle in showing his surprise but from the pull of her brows, he was not. Sesshomaru _never_ sent him messages when he was away. So often did he save his words for when they were in one another’s presence although his son never had many. Totōsai floated closer to him at the question and he could feel the old weapon smith’s concern. 

“Is something wrong, Rin?”

Her face crumpled then she shook her head, offering him a tinier smile, this time saddened. “Sesshomaru needs you.”

Those words. Warm and reverent, almost _amiable_. Rumors of an intruder in his home had gone unheeded. Kimi would have dealt with them long ago if it were a threat. Yet these rumors spoke of the intruder often coming to meet with his son. And, to his conflicted delight and dismay, they were _true_.

“Rin,” Toga said firmly. “Your duty is to remain I—” 

“I know,” Rin snapped, and there was an audible inhale from Myoga. None would dare to snap at him, but Toga took no offense. No, the look in her eyes was curious. Fierce determination that brokered no disobedience. “In another life, I wouldn’t stand in your way. In _this_ , I must.”

After a short while, keeping her gaze, Toga flexed his fingers involuntarily and nodded. Rin hopping off of his knee as he stood and turned to Totōsai who awaited him with a deep scowl.

“We are leaving, disassemble the camps and order the troops to return.”

Myoga squeaked, hopping up to his shoulder for the first time since the battles began. “So quickly, m’lord?” He asked, seeming relieved but confused as Toga strode away without a backward glance. 

“The rest will be handled by that child alone.”

He scanned the field of dismembered bodies and ringing screams then kept his gaze ahead, feeling the watchful eyes of the dead as he strode by. 

“Myoga, Totōsai,” Toga said in a low growl, ignoring the aching pain and growing sense of danger swelling at his back. “Not a word of what will happen on this day, do you understand?”

Ordinarily, the pair were quite raucous and opinionated, but he received nothing but a hushed tone of “Yes, m’lord.” 

Casting a side-long glance at Totōsai, the weapon smith bowed his head then turned his steed back toward where the young girl stood atop of a broken wooden cart. The tip of her toes balancing her on its edge, a single wheel creaking as it turned. She didn’t look up as Totōsai hovered close and he was grateful. Feeling the waves of anger and dissonance curling off her small form as he rummaged through the heavy burden tied around his shoulders. Drawing out a single blade, he offered it to her. 

“You’ll be needing this,” he said, snatching his hand away when she took it. “It’s been crying since you left it last.”

Her hair shaded her eyes but when she looked to him, there was the expression of a child, young and innocent — wholly apologetic. “Sorry, sorry…” She cooed to the blade, unsheathing it just as the loud cry came from the other end of the field. Humans, some on horseback, others wielding quivers filled with arrows and bows, and some bearing swords beginning to flood. Her breath was shudderingly soft, eyes downcast as if mourning. “You should go now, Totōsai.”

A weak protest was swallowed and he turned his head away as his steed lifted into the clouds and a booming echo from below started the cacophony of destruction. 

“Good luck, kid…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that certainly ended off on an ominous note, didn’t it?
> 
> A little bit of an exploration on Sesshomaru’s life and how deeply Toga cares for his family. In this AU, things are a _little_ different and the world isn’t quite what we know it as. Sesshomaru is relatively young in this snippet. Appearing around possibly ten to eleven years old while Rin is just about the same. The two of them having been friends who knows how long, but there is still some wariness and unspoken feelings here and there. Needless to say, there’s a lot underneath the surface with Sesshomaru’s struggles in self-image, his father balancing his lordship and family, and Rin being well… Rin.
> 
> I’d love to do something more Kimi-centric at some point but there’s so much of this AU to explore.
> 
> Well, that’s enough of me rambling. You can find me as **unlockthelore** on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pillowfort, and FFN. If you want to read some of my original fiction, check me out on Tapas, I’m currently writing **Legend of the Four Elemental Heroes** , an Isekai litrpg novel with a twist. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading as always, and see ya later!


	6. Ritual of Habit (Yōkai AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “When is taking a life justified,” Rin asks. “How much life can be taken before the meaning of it is lost?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is from the **Yōkai AU**.

**Ritual of Habit**

Fireflies drifted aimlessly over the pond’s rippling surface, their yellowish-green twinkling like stars across the crystalline depths as they meandered through the humid summer night. A splash spurred them to flee as Rin pulled her hands from the cool waters, rubbing them together from fingertip to wrist then back. 

Guilt sloshed inside her heart as she stared at her fingertips then curled them into fists, holding them to her nose. Beneath the hyssop and primrose, a musty rancid scent churned the emptied contents of her stomach. 

“What did you do, Rin?”

Barely a whisper on the wind, Rin’s lips parted and naught a sound but a sigh passed them. She bowed her head and settled her hands in her lap while soft footsteps sifted through tall grass. Vibrant red skirts shifted in the corner of her eye, wrinkling as a young woman knelt beside her, setting aside the wicker basket filled with pinked ripe peaches. The desire to take one and take to the skies was swallowed beneath the thick putrid taste on Rin’s tongue. 

Her gaze returned to the now-still waters and a twisting pull stole air from her lungs til they burned. Rain dampened her cheeks. Breath rattling in searing lungs as a touch jostled her into an embrace. White sleeves, pristine and unmarred, clouded Rin’s vision as the woman held her to her chest. 

Slowly, she allowed her eyes to close and in the back of her eyelids, she saw naught but blood and dust. 

* * *

Rin sat silently, listening to the wheel’s creaking turn and her blade’s gentle humming. A drizzle had begun to fall, a distant clap of thunder rumbling through the skies, cracking the veil of grey drifting overhead. She rocked backward to a soundless song and parted her lips to welcome a few drops of rain to her dried tongue. Around laid the bodies of men and animals, beasts of burden ridden into _glorious_ battle and laid low without a second thought. Their screams echoing into the atmosphere as they watched helplessly while their comrades rode on. Her eyes shuttered almost disappointedly as the wet clomping of hooves across sodden earth came to a halt a few paces before her perch.

“Speak true, girl,” a stern voice ordered with an undercurrent of trepidation hardening yet shaking his words. “Do ye fight on behalf of Inu no Taishō?”

Rain cooled between her toes squelched as she curled them, rocking forward with her hands resting upon her knees. Almost lazily, her gaze drifted to the two men on horseback staring down at her unsurely. One, stern-faced, young, and angered, eyes deadened coal and reflective in their contempt. While the other, hooded and resigned, stared down at her pleadingly though the words would not leave his sewn downturned lips. 

Sympathy thudded deep within her heart for them. While neither were inherently evil, the acts they wished to commit on the other side of the field where the Western Lord’s troops were retreating, would not come to pass. 

Without a word, Rin nodded and the stern-faced man balked while the other averted his gaze. Horses brayed as one of the men dismounted, the other clumsily following after, but Rin didn’t raise her gaze to meet either of them as they approached. A dirtied calloused hand seized the front of her kimono and yanked her up to her toes, blade clattering to the mud. 

“Have ye gone mad?” The stern-faced man spat into her face, his yellowed teeth and barley-thick breath singing her nose hairs. “Bewitched?!”

For a long moment, Rin said nothing. She knew what it must have seemed to them. Wings tucked away and left alone, she resembled a human girl but the eyes could not be fooled. Lifting her gaze to meet those contemptuous eyes, she saw the flicker of recognition before his hand released her with a backward shove. She did not fall. Taking one a half-step backward, regaining her footing on the cart’s wooden railing.

Drizzling rain began to fall in earnest, sleets becoming a steady downpour muddling blood and dirt. The stern-faced soldier moved to draw his sword, the blade clattering clumsily in its sheath only to be stayed as his companion grasped his wrist. 

Pleadingly, he stood between Rin and the grieved soldier. “My lord, she’s only a girl. Please let her be.”

“That is no _child_ ,” the stern-faced soldier snarled, yanking his hand free of his companion’s grasp.

Before they could continue, Rin sighed. “He is right.” 

All movement stilled. The hooded-eyed soldier looking back to her, stricken and aggrieved. She wondered for a moment how many battles had he seen. How many children did he plead for? Were they spared or did they paint ghostly images in the back of his eyelids? Despite the heavy armor he wore, polished and sluiced with the rain, and his weathered skin marred with scars — his expression was young and broken at the implication. 

Her admittance would be her death, and she pitied him. 

“You came to fight on this soil for your fathers, brothers, sisters, and mothers slain by your enemies,” Rin said, inhaling deeply as the thick humidity began to deepen with the weight of her power. Hammering rains drenched them, distant confusion in calls for retreat or advance, while the pair before her looked on. One with his intention secured while the other yet wavered. 

Still, if they decided to fight, Rin would stay her course. 

She promised. 

“Nothing will return them to life,” she said sympathetically. Thunder roared over her head and the earth trembled in response. “Do not waste yours.”

Wind howled and Rin’s blood pulsed as it rushed through her ears. Both soldiers stared, uncertainty in their eyes, but the elder turned away from his younger counterpart to stand before her. He knelt to the mud and scooped up the blade. Its sheath drenched from torrential rains, pressed into Rin’s waiting palms as he rose to his feet, his eyes meeting hers for a second before he towered over her once again. 

“Michikatsu!” The younger cried out but the elder raised his hand, silencing him. 

As he lowered it, the rains died and the winds calmed, distressed noises eased into ones of curiosity and concern. “… What is your name?” The elder soldier — Michikatsu, Rin reminded herself — asked in a gentle tone. The younger looked on in surprise as the elder removed his helmet, letting it rest in the crook of his hip. 

Recognizing respect, she bowed her head curtly. “They call me Rin.”

His lips pulled to one side. “But is that your name?” He asked, stately and poised despite the rivulets of water and mud spraying across his garbs. “A demoness such as yourself must have many.”

Rin’s eyes softened and the sympathy she felt for him was unmatched. “It is the only one you may know.”

Something akin to understanding emerged in the elder’s weathered features and he closed his eyes, bowing his head slightly. 

“I see.” Painstakingly slow, he raised his helmet and slipped it onto his head, speaking as he secured the fastenings. “Know that I do not agree with my lord. But…”

The mawkish call of indignance from the young soldier fell on deaf ears. Rin, giving the entirety of her attention onto the elder, even as scouts began to gallop toward their position. 

“On behalf of all those who’d fallen to that creature’s rise, I stand here now. So I ask you…” His sword drew with purpose, a slick ringing echoing in Rin’s ears as the tip of his blade rested square between her eyes. At the end of its length, she saw Michiktasu’s eyes. Resignation and defeat, but determination as his lord looked on from behind and the number of soldiers stood ready to wage war. 

“Rin, will you die for that creature?”

Stoic as those words were, they were drenched in a silent plea. One Rin could not answer. Michikatsu made his decision and she had made hers.

“No.”

The air crackled and smoldered around her as her hair lifted on arcs of energy drifting from her small frame in waves of blinding white. Her eyes closed for half a second and when they opened, she could see the fear and apprehension in theirs. 

“I do not plan to die on this day.”

* * *

  


When she dared to open her eyes, the comforting hold had become a vice-like grip. One that may have been painful if not for the nature of her being. And yet, that was the issue. Her being is what drove those pitiful humans to their end. Loyalty, friendship, determination in the barest sense of the word — is what ended their lives. 

Rin trembled and braced herself against the woman’s sides, easing away from her comforting embrace. Velvety hands, pleasant to the touch, leave her pliant as they tip her head upward to meet a pair of ink-colored eyes belonging to a fair-skinned woman. Her raven-black hair sweeping thick tendrils down her shoulders and back, gentle rounded features twisted with reticent thought. Beneath the silvery moonlight, the woman seemed to glow. 

Ethereal and never-ending, ironic considering her being. 

A pained tremor cracked as the woman brushed her fingertips along the underside of Rin’s eyes. An aroma of spider lilies incensed the air as her palms cradled the curve of Rin’s cheeks. 

“Speak to me, little one…”

Mirthless laughter spat out from Rin’s lips. Sound harsh and grating to her ears, and along the worn lining of her throat. Yet, if it bothered the woman, she said not. There was little to be angered over. Their lives were over, the battle won. 

Toga had returned home to his son. She’d seen to it herself. 

And yet… 

“Midoriko,” Rin prefaced, staring into her eyes. She couldn’t help but notice, although the face and presence were naught the same, those eyes reminded her of Michikatsu’s. She tore her gaze away, guilt cinching her chest. “… When is war justified?”

The priestess’s eyes widened and for a brief second, Rin felt remorse. She hadn’t meant to come into Midoriko’s garden with such heady conversation. However, she couldn’t seem to ease the question from mind. After a moment which felt like an eternity, Midoriko’s expression smoothed into one of serenity and she shifted her gaze to the pond before them. Rin following suit, catching sight of their reflections in the still waters. 

“War is often waged between those with conflicting ideals,” Midoriko started, holding out one of her hands, a firefly drifting to set upon her finger. Its light casting shadows over her palm. “Or in need of protecting what is theirs from those who wish to take it.”

Rin’s brow furrowed as she heard crickets chirping and glanced off to the smattering of huts in the distance. Lanterns weaving in and out of the trees. 

“Is there no way past it?” She asked, rising to her feet as she stepped behind Midoriko, furthering herself from the distant line of the forest. The clearing in which they sat together, while a favorite of hers, was not only known to them. In a bid to keep their talk quiet, Rin lowered her voice but she couldn’t ignore the swell of curiosity and anxiousness burning at her lungs. 

Midoriko allowed her with her eyes, concern downturning her lips, her mouth opening but the swell of emotions poured out of Rin before she could stop them. 

“When is taking a life justified?” Rin asked hurriedly, Midoriko’s mouth snapping shut, eyes widened. “How much life can be taken before the meaning of it is lost? And to whom…” She regretted her words as Midoriko rose to her feet. “Does one answer to when they no longer feel that remorse?”

Her arms beginning to tremble as she took a half-step backward, staring down at her hands. Clear though her fingertips were, pristine and free of blemish, she could still remember the feeling. Red coating and outlined in the creases of her fingertips, streaked across her palms and smeared against her wrists. 

She knew why she drew her blade. And unperturbed by the respect shown, by the look in their eyes, she swung it again and again without mercy. 

Til naught else remained. 

Warm hands enveloped her own and jostled her forward. “Rin,” Midoriko snapped, voice firm as the grip she had on Rin’s hands. “ _This_ — The pain you feel… It is a symbol of remorse.”

Rin shuddered, swallowing the lump in her throat, allowing Midoriko to squeeze her hands in spite of the fear of red smearing across the priestess’ own. 

Undisturbed, Midoriko held her and smiled, kneeling in the grass. “A way to know that you yet live, and feel for all you’ve done.. Even if you do not wish to undo it, it still proves that you are good.” She nodded once, slowly releasing Rin’s hands and reaching out to pull her into an embrace. Her nose settled against Midoriko’s shoulder as she held her tightly. 

“Because only those who are mindful of their action seek repentance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this was a strange one to write. There were a lot of things that I wanted to fit into this one chapter and I wasn't quite sure how to do it. On one hand, I really wanted to introduce Midoriko as a character in the AU and also give some insight into Rin. Her regret, and what she may have done after leaving Toga. The fight scene may be revisited at another time along with Rin's connection to Midoriko but for the time being, I think this is pretty good.
> 
> As usual, you guys can find me on most social media platforms at **unlockthelore**! If you want to read my original writing, you can find me on Tapas, where I'm currently writing **Legend of the Four Elemental Heroes**. Thanks a lot guys!


	7. Out of Place (Sessrin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sesshomaru asked her before not to ask ridiculous questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although this isn't necessarily a prompt post, the idea for this fic came from [this post](https://screamibgdodo.tumblr.com/post/621183538290720768/sesshorins-physical-gesture-of-affection-because) made by screamibgdodo on Tumblr!

**Out of Place**

Although the gatherings thrown in _honor_ of his return to the Western Lands were extravagant and bustling, Sesshomaru detested every second. It was noisy. Packed from wall to wall with some who’d come to pay their respects, others gossiping tirelessly, and few seeming to want mischief. His mother insisted he stay for the speeches, ostentatious gestures with gifts from far away lands, lingering glances from demoness and displays of strength. It was a formality. Another aspect of his life that was changing with disregard for his feelings, yet honor and duty commanded he change with it, whether he wishes to or not.

Once the signal had been given, a flutter of orange at the corner of his eye, Sesshomaru abandoned his throne without warning. His mother covered her mouth with her sleeve as he brushed past her, ignoring the glances and idle whispers. His fingers flexing involuntarily as he cut visceral glances at those who strayed too close. While they were free to admire him in public, what he did in private was no one’s business but his own. Talk continued in its heady buzz as Sesshomaru absconded into the cool night air, venturing into the gardens wrapping around the coastal cliff side of the palace. There, seated on one of the numerous cliffs, was a young woman dressed in a familiar pattern of orange and green.

Night’s humidity had ruined his mother’s best efforts at taming her hair, a faint smile threatening to curve his lips as he noticed her picking at her bangs, unaware of him.

“What are you doing, Rin?” He asked once his expression was composed, noting the thin sheen of sweat glistening at the back of her neck, hidden as she swept her hair from over her shoulder. The form-fitting kimono fashioned out of the same yōkai thread as her old kosode accentuated her natural beauty without overpowering it.

He would have to reward the seamstress.

“Attempting to fix my hair, _m’lord_ ,” she replied, ruffling her fingers through her hair, doing the exact _opposite_ of what his mother had done.

Still, he preferred her like this and as he came to sit by her side, Rin smiled at him.

“... What is it?”

“I’m only surprised you’re abandoning your _own_ feast, that’s quite bold, m’lord.”

Sesshomaru almost huffed, turning his gaze to the shifting waters churning toward the horizon. Rin continued picking at her hair and Sesshomaru glanced at her, shaking his head. 

“Stop.”

Her nose wrinkled at him when she lowered her hand, confused. “What?”

Time seemed to slow as he reached out, curling his fingers along the underside of damp black locks, tucking a few securely behind her right ear. The tips pink and soft beneath his fingertips as he pulled away. Beneath pale moonlight, Rin’s flushed cheeks were unmistakable and a pleasant warmth stirred in Sesshomaru’s chest.

“... There is nothing to _fix_.” He turned his attention back to the water, not minding when Rin shifted closer to him, her hand brushing against his own. 

Perhaps these gatherings weren’t _entirely_ horrid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this late at night and I'm proud of it. Soft moments, soft moments, and after the debacle from yesterday's dive into Yōkai AU - I think it was necessary. Anyway, this was a little Sesshomaru-centric and showed what relief Rin gives him and how he's not letting anyone get in the way of that. Jaken learned, so will all of you. But also, some reassurance. Rin, you're beautiful just as you are.
> 
> Alright then! As sweet as this is, that's today's update. I'm super excited to see what others I can do, I might integrate my modern fantasy AU. That'd be interesting to see. Possibilities, possibilities.
> 
> See you all next time, and as always, check me out on most social media under **unlockthelore**! On Tapas, my original fiction awaits. **Legend of the Four Elemental Heroes** being my current work.
> 
> Thanks!


	8. The Other Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For three years Kagome waited for a sign. Then one day, out of the blue, someone came.

**The Other Side**

Kagome slowly opened her eyes as she heard the lilting tune of a gentle hum. Like the buzz of a cicadas’ cry or a cricket’s chirping, it hardly seemed out of place. Her eyes closed. She only wanted to remain a dream for awhile longer, lost in the darkness of the dormant well’s bottom, recalling every moment of the past. 

The humming grew louder, and for a moment, Kagome thought to ask whomever was doing so to leave her be. Her family respected her wishes when she descended into the wellhouse and only came to retrieve her by morning. With a start, Kagome jerked upright and fumbled in her pockets as her heels knocked against the earthen walls. A hiss of pain interrupting the melodious sounds from above, pins and needles ricocheting from her heel to knee. The light of her phone screen was nearly blinding but she squinted past the watery sting and paled.

“I’m going to miss schooll!” Kagome yelled at the top of her lungs, shoving her phone away after nearly dropping it in her mad scramble to climb the well’s side via the rope she’d kept tethered to the post by its base. “How did I sleep past noon?! Mama! Grandpa! So—”

As she pulled herself over the wooden railing, a gentle voice barely above a whisper, yet loud within the well house’s quiet addressed her. 

“Well actually, it’s a Saturday, so you didn’t miss class.”

Kagome blinked slowly, one leg thrown over the well’s side while the other dangled. She could imagine what she looked like. Hair a mess, clothes rumpled from being curled up in one position for far too long, and bug-eyed at the sight of the young woman across from her. A dark mane of black hair sweeping over curved shoulders in waves, shining with particles of light drifting from the slats in the well house’s door. Deep brown eyes, gleaming with amusement, matching a pleasant smile. If Kikyō’s presence had been suffocating, then the weight of hers was the full brunt of the sun unfettered and searing, yet this close it felt like a radiating warmth like a fire on a chilly winter’s night. 

“Also, you probably needed that sleep,” the woman continued, inclining her head as she rocked backward. A ripple in her hair causing the orange and green beads woven into a braid to clack together with the whistle of chimes. “Though, this doesn’t seem like a very comfortable place to sleep.”

She peered back into the well, a thoughtful hum buzzing up her throat, and at the aversion of her eyes Kagome realized she’d been staring at her all the while.

“Um…” Kagome trailed off, flicking her gaze from one corner of the well house to the other, almost expecting someone to attack. Nothing came. Only shelves with her grandfather’s faulty goods, her own bow and arrow gathering dust in the corner, the well itself, and them. 

The woman seemed to sense her curiosity and tension, looking to her with a mixture of worry and genuine concern. “Are you still asleep?” She asked, and though the words were simple, the look in her eyes seemed to speak to something else. “Need any help getting out?” 

Kagome realized, this woman must have been waiting for her to wake up. But for how long, and why? Distrust simmered in her stomach but she was careful not to show it. “No, I’ve got it…” She replied, swinging her leg over the well’s side and shuffling backward with a slight frown, careful not to trip over the rope’s post or the well house steps. Her back kept to the light and the woman in sight. 

As if realizing something was amiss, the woman gasped and clapped her hands together, the wooden-beaded bracelet on her left wrist shifted as her sleeves fell back. “Oh! I actually came to see you, but you weren’t in your room,” she said. “Your mother said I’d be able to find you here.”

Her mother? Kagome narrowed her eyes as she stared at the woman’s aura. It was so _pink_. She could hardly draw any negative energy from her or malcontent. Yet, there was this feeling of nostalgia. If the woman minded her silence, she didn’t say, kicking her bare feet against the dusty floor. A pair of sandals set next to her swinging feet, seeming fairly untouched. Did she even wear them when she entered?

Kagome frowned faintly. She was groggy, on-edge, and desperately wanted a shower. Even more so, it felt like all the hints she was dropping were curving over this woman’s head like a deflected arrow. With a deep sigh, Kagome steeled herself. “Um… who… are you?” 

For the first time since their eyes met, the woman’s smile dissipated. Her deep brown eyes widened and she actually seemed at a loss, touching a finger to the underside of her chin. “Oh no,” she muttered forlornly, then her eyes softened. “Well… it _has_ been a few years…”

She seemed to be mumbling more to herself than Kagome. Something that Kagome detested greatly when it felt as if someone was talking around her rather than _to_ her. Yet, the woman’s eyes twinkled with sadness and shuttered. 

“I’ve never been good with hellos,” the woman sighed, resting her hands in her lap, as she teetered dangerously backward almost close to falling into the well herself. “Or see you agains, I suppose. And we weren’t exactly close when you left.”

Kagome’s eyes narrowed as she whispered. “Left?”

As if she said nothing, the woman continued muttering as she felt about the flowing white of her long-sleeved shirt. “Let’s see… what would you remember?” Her freckled shoulders exposed and Kagome could have sworn she’d seen the beginnings of a tattoo along her back when the woman turned to one side, pulling something free from the pockets of her skirts. 

“Ah, I got it!”

A familiar chime of rattling beads stammered Kagome’s heartbeat as the woman held out a necklace, painfully familiar to her as their owner. These beads, fashioned into a rosary, were ones she held and seen time and time again but on the neck of someone who was not _her_. 

“Inuyasha’s… necklace…” Kagome whispered, reaching out unconsciously, her heart skipping a bit as a fury rose. “ _Why_ do you have that?”

Inuyasha would never have given it willingly. Even in his human form, he’d never attempted to take them off. It was selfish of her, she knew, but in a way it was a connection she had to him. A part of them that’d been since the beginning. For her to have it could only have meant —

Out the corner of her eye, Kagome glimpsed her bow and arrow and though she took to practice often for familiarity and habit, she had little trouble taking to arms. 

The woman seemed to sense her agitation as she gazed squarely at her, pooling the beads into her hand. “He said you wouldn’t believe who I was unless I had proof.” She stared down at her hand and Kagome did as well, wanting desperately to snatch the necklace. Whether it was rude or not didn’t matter. “Which to be fair, you would be right not to after what happened before.”

Kagome clenched her fist and she almost wanted to shout at her to tell her already. What was she doing here? Why did she talk as if she knew her — knew _them_ — knew _him_? In the years she’d been gone, waiting and watching for a glimmer of hope to return, did something happen? Her gaze flicked over the woman’s form from her hair to her eyes, the patient smile on her lips, her white shoulder less shirt with its long sleeves, orange skirt embroidered with tiny green circles, nearly sweeping the well house floor, though its front seemed to barely brush past her knees. 

But those circles, that _pattern_ … 

“So! If I have this then that must mean…”

“I’ve seen this pattern before…” Kagome interjected, stifling the woman’s musings with a breathy tone. “On… the little girl that… traveled with Sesshomaru…”

The woman blinked at her slowly, their eyes meeting, and she smiled. “I told Inuyasha you’d get it on your own, but of course, he just doesn’t listen,” she said, shaking her head then rocking up to her feet in one flourish, presenting the necklace to Kagome looped on the tips of her fingers. “It’s been awhile, Kagome.”

It was impossible. Out of everyone she expected to come for her — to _see_ her — she was the _last_.

“Rin?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been wanting to write this one since forever! At first, it was going to be a _super_ long one but I decided to break it up and give myself time to write other things. Anyhow, this is Kagome and her entrance into Feathers In The Wind! Sadly, it's not an entirely happy one. After she was separated from Inuyasha and the well closed, this is part of what she's been up to. But now, she has someone reaching out to her but the question is - how?
> 
> Can't wait to see where this little trail leads but as always, until next time.
> 
> As always, you can find me on most social media under **unlockthelore**! For my original fiction, check out **Legend of the Four Elemental Heroes** on Tapas. 
> 
> See ya!


	9. A Modest Proposal (Sessrin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin explains to Sesshomaru in the most heartfelt of ways why she refers to him the way she does.

**A Modest Proposal**

After the first few weeks of bluster and posturing, peace reigned supreme in the Western Palace with its lord insisting there be little in the way of intrusion in his daily going-ons. Rin was happy to watch from the rafters, and behind doorways in emptied corridors reserved for servants, while Sesshomaru conducted the uproarious attitudes of proud yōkai who would gladly fall at his feet. And fall they would if they continued to vex him. 

Her giggles were kept quiet behind her hand before she spirited away, befriending some of the servants who could keep secrets, and winning over the ones who would not. It wouldn’t do for her explorations to be impeded by politics and while the yōkai were great in power and longevity, they were woefully keen on gossip. 

Everything from the set of her clothes to the way she held her bow, flicked knives from the long flowing sleeves that covered her hands. Childishly, some of the demoness would say. There were some who glimpsed upon her petite size and thought her meek. Insisting on trying to outwit her in everything from wordplay to knowledge. The pleasure she took in their stricken expressions would make a priestess blush, but she said little, not wanting bruised egos to chafe her lord’s. 

Pleasing the masses was the furthest thing from her mind. After all, she was there as not only Sesshomaru’s companion but a member of his council. Keen in the ways of yōkai, most of his generals and lieutenants were, they were abysmally terrible when it pertained to humans. Trickery was one thing. Honest and genuine communication to avoid bloodshed was another. And then there was the inevitability of lust. Curiosities of the Inu no Taishō’s human spread far with a number of nobles, in hopes of visiting Sesshomaru and gaining his favor, leering glances and volleying questions at Rin out of his earshot. 

Jaken insisted that she pay them little mind out of the usual respects. Not take up challenges for games or long-winded conversations milling about the gardens away from the watchful eyes of those who could protect her. Strong though she may be, Jaken reminded, she had no powers of purification and her tricks could only do so much. His concerns were touching. And she made sure to reward him with delightful treats and firsthand gifts from her travels outside of the castle’s walls. 

Formalities and rules were easy to slip into but once she was free of them, amidst the sprawling forests and sloping knolls, fields of flowers and winding gravel roads — she was herself and not Lady Rin. Nor was she the buffer between Sesshomaru’s agitation toward custom and the freedom they’d known for the years they’d resumed traveling together. 

Rin smiled as she rose to her feet, looking up to the lone figure set beneath the single tree in the dell. Amidst the springy grass, freshly green and glimmering almost yellow in the sunlight, Sesshomaru rested with the posture of a man who ruled the world yet couldn’t be bothered to lay eyes upon it. His back resting against the base of the tree trunk, one leg half-bent while the other laid parting a small cluster of hyssop. 

Afternoon sunlight shone off the silver of his hair almost making it seem white, and beneath a crown of flowers set upon his head by Rin, he truly seemed aristocratic. Her fingers danced over the silvery strands, curling them in between her fingers as she settled in the grass, careful not to bury her knees in the dirt lest another lecture from Jaken rattle in her ears. A small smile ghosted her lips, tracing the pointed tip of one of his ears, the silvery strands hooked behind it as her fingertips fled to his jaw. 

Formality wouldn’t allow her to touch him so flippantly. Sure enough, a number of complaints would be voiced and she knew from experience he would listen to none. To him, she was an exception — a confusing one in her eyes — but an exception nonetheless. And to her, he was an enigma — a puzzle she was learning day after day — and never grew tired of. Graciously, Rin cradled his cheek and brushed her thumb along the marks on his cheeks, admiring the long curved eyelashes barely dusting his cheeks. 

“If you allow me to touch you any longer, Lord Sesshomaru, there will be trouble to pay later.”

Not to her surprise, his eyes opened lazily and flicked up to meet her own as he raised his head, movements fluid and graceful. There was a slight contempt in his eyes fettered by amusement. Trouble, she thought, would be something he would welcome from the ease of lordship. He tipped his head to one side inadvertently pushing his cheek against her hand and settling there.

Sesshomaru held her gaze after a moment’s pause then leant forward, the moon of his forehead disappearing from her sight, gold encasing her entire world as their noses brushed. “Why do you refer to me as such, Rin?”

Rapt with attention and confused by the sudden closeness, Rin found herself at a loss for words and almost tongue-tied. “Pardon?” 

“You are not beneath me,” Sesshomaru said in a low voice. It was remarkably loud to her own ears but she was certain that no one else aside from them would be able to hear it. Jaken remained in the palace grounds with A-Un, and aside from the insects and the creatures of the forest, it was only them.

“And yet you refer to me as your lord.” Sesshomaru’s eyes narrowed and she could see the displeasure in them. A slight wrinkle in his brow, warm breath ghosting against her lips as he tipped his chin forward. “You never cared much for formality in your youth.”

Ignoring the temptation from the briefest touch of his lips to hers, Rin smiled. “Are you calling me _old_ , Lord Sesshomaru?”

“You avoid the question,” he said. Despite the lack of a smile on his face, she could hear one in his voice and laughter bubbled up from her chest. 

Of course, this was another part of the changes in their life that she didn’t take to gladly. Dancing around one another with unspoken sentiments and meanings. While she was adept at keeping up the movements there were some days where she simply wanted his arms around her, and to listen to the waves crash against the cliffs. Simple pleasures but they were enough to keep her when their duties separated them. 

“You _are_ my lord,” Rin insisted, and the wrinkle in Sesshomaru’s brow deepened, but she kissed him lightly when his lips parted effectively silencing the words. “Listen.”

His eyes widened for a split second then narrowed into his usual veneer, gold flicking over her features before he hummed once and waited. 

Rin curled her fingers against his cheek, reaching up to cradle his jaw in her hands, brushing her nails purposefully behind his ears. A deep inhale, far more rushed and startled than his usual controlled breaths, cracking the veneer as he stared at her with surprise. 

“You are _my_ lord,” she murmured and all the unspoken words seemed to tumble out at once. Understanding crossed his features and the moment, frozen between them, melted as he drew her into his arms. A shriek of laughter coming from her as he kissed her firmly. 

As far as proposals went, she believed it was a modest one. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little insight into Rin and how little fucks she gives about the yōkai aristocracy along with a few cameos of Sesshomaru being tired of people, and Jaken being Rin's pseudo-parent. I love their little family dynamics and ideas of exploring their lives after their adventures with each other come to a standstill with duty. For reference, this is a post-canon verse where Rin is about twenty-six years old. She'd been traveling with Sesshomaru since she was twenty-two and the two of them have had a lot to learn about each other which leant to moments like this.
> 
> I really want to write more about their travels together, and their interactions with the others. But for the time being, this seems like a good place.
> 
> As always, you can find me on most media at **unlockthelore**! Check me out on Tapas for my novel **Legend of the Four Elemental Heroes** , and thank you so much for reading!


	10. Witch of the West (Sessrin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are whispers on the wind as the battlefield falls still — the Western Lord is looking for his Lady, the Witch of the West.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off of the second point from [this post](https://sessrin-sanctuary.tumblr.com/post/623187415811670016/lucemg-screamibgdodo-sesshorins-physical) made by screamibgdodo on Tumblr.

**Witch of the West**

There are whispers on the wind as the battlefield falls still. Injured soldiers, unwilling to hobble before their Lord, straighten up as Sesshomaru passes them by without even a cursory glance. Their haggard figures are only a result of exertion against foes who wouldn’t have proven even the slightest bit of challenge. Exaggerated blows, attacks with wasteful movements, meant to outdo the yokai next to them in gaining his attention and favor rather than drive back the enemy. 

He ignored the idle chatter, allowing himself to scan the sodden grass stained with blood and water from heavy clouds blotting the sky. Now darkened with the passing of the sun, the world was a writhing mess of humidity and tackiness, unallowing of even the barest hint of the moon and stars. Sesshomaru huffed as he turned his attention back to the camp where most of the yokai were settling to return to the Western Palace. With the skirmish quelled and the banners of the opposing faction burning, there was nothing left to do but gather his subordinates and return. 

The torches were lit one by one. Amidst the chatter, whispered voices caught his ear as their conversations centered around the one he was interested in. Utterances of plans whilst coming from the mouth of their Lord were actually concoctions of a witch. Sesshomaru flexed his fingers unconsciously at the slight but kept silent, wandering the shadows of tents and posts as he listened. Some stammered voices echoed concerns over a measly human’s rise to power, the spiritual energy crackling in the air as she fought, a host of poisons and spells at her disposal which could easily be turned against them. A smile threatened to tug at his lips when he heard relieved accounts that she was loyal to their lord.

Likely sparing them from her ire. 

But there was one common thread — out of his earshot — they referred to her by a name that soured his mood.

The Witch of the West. 

He’d almost the mind to step out of hiding but the idea of being caught eavesdropping was mortifying, as was the sudden movement out the corner of his eye. Dark hair fluttering on a breeze swept in from the woodlands. Silent as a shadow, but easy enough to follow away from the glowing lights and victorious cries. 

The forest was tranquil. An ache in his bones mirroring the one in his chest, surrounded by the quiet stillness. Sesshomaru glanced up when leaves shook free from a branch, narrowly missing the tip of his nose as they drifted down. Without warning, a shadow dropped and he held out his hands to catch a young woman with tousled leaf-dappled hair and a glowing smile. Even his best scolding look was ignored, her hand patting against his collar before she slipped from his grasp with grace and a bit of clumsiness with her staggering footsteps. 

“You’ve heard them then,” he said, reaching out to pluck a few of the leaves from her hair. His lips twitched in a frown, concerned by the redness crusted along the curve of her cheek when she looked back to him. 

She seemed to notice his concern, reaching up to touch along her face until she found the offending feature, scrubbing it away with the heel of her hand. “It would be difficult not to with how loudly they speak,” she said, and as if reading his mind, quickly added. “It doesn’t bother me, m’lord. In fact, I find it charming.”

Sesshomaru’s brows raised. Never would Rin cease to surprise him with the oddities she found interesting. Yet, just like with all else, she seemed happy to explain. The red smeared into a dull pink. His brows pulled together as she spoke, seemingly unaware of his approach. 

“Your mother was called a number of things, some less flattering than others, right?” She pursed her lips at that and he could imagine what was going through her mind. Protectiveness toward his mother clouded Rin’s eyes and Sesshomaru smiled to himself. What he thought was born out of respect, was quickly assured to be admiration and matronly affection. Surprisingly, returned by his mother in her own roundabout way. “That they wouldn’t speak it in my presence only shows cowardice, nothing more. But the rumors are sillier than a drunk’s tales,” Rin huffed and Sesshomaru slowed his strides just a bit.

It was amusing to hear her talk. Animated as she was, her voice seemed to carry all of her feelings unabashedly. He couldn’t imagine being so unfettered but it was what drew him to her to begin with. 

“Poisoning our enemies, cackling into the night, experimenting and studying yokai for my terrible deeds —” Her cheeks were flushed though whether it was from the battle, the closeness between them, or the heat was beyond him. It was a beautiful color. Dusting across sun-kissed skin, copper-brown, fairly unblemished aside from that touch of smeared pink. 

“Even bewitching the Lord of the West,” Rin finished, and Sesshomaru blinked at her with a raised brow. The look on her face was less amused exasperation and more curiosity. “In every rumor, there is a grain of truth.”

Her hands sought out one of his own, coiling his wrist in the pleasant silken touch of her fingers. Sesshomaru hadn’t realized he stopped breathing until his palm was set against her cheek hiding the smear but leaving him wholly aware of the liberties she took with him. How much he allowed it, and how he would be sorely remiss not to. 

“So, tell me, m’lord—” His ears perked but he kept his face neutral as much as possible with the sultry tone of her voice, hidden beneath the innocent smile lighting her eyes. “Are you under my spell?”

Sesshomaru said nothing and he hardly gave her the chance to either. 

At least, nothing intelligible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this all in one go early in the morning and oddly, wanted to post it up. I'm coming up with a thought of how I want to handle these drabbles versus my long-fics and I'll let you all know on my Twitter what the verdict is. 
> 
> As always, thank you for reading! And check you out later!


	11. Marry You ( Sessrin + Inuyasha, Yōkai AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A marriage proposal goes horribly awry when two brothers are pit against one another over a misunderstanding.

**Marry You**

Rin glanced up from her tea as the door slightly slid open. In a flash of movement, a blur of red ricocheted through the small opening. Flower petals filled her vision, blossoms tucked and tickled beneath her nose, offered by a red-faced child with sharp golden eyes and ears perked at attention. 

From across the table, a choked noise drew her attention to the trio looking on in amusement, and the pointed stare at her back reminded her of the fourth observing quietly. She balanced the cup in her hand before setting it down neatly on its saucer, resting her hands in her lap as she looked over the pale orange and greens of the flowers. 

They were some of her favorites, only blooming in a portion of the garden long-reserved for her. In fact, she spied him there not too long ago with Myoga hopping up and down between his ears.

Sans the flea yōkai, Inuyasha trembled and gazed up at her with nervous determination. The wind chimes sounded as the afternoon sun hung low in the sky, making his glimmering eyes and the pink flush to his cheeks profoundly noticeable. Easing to face him, Rin gently cupped her hands around his quivering ones, noticing and decidedly ignoring the hitch in his breath. 

“What’re these for?” She asked, freeing the poor stems from his bruising grip to cradle them to her chest. 

Rin watched his hands curl to fists at his sides and his ears flick erratically, his intense gaze dropping to his feet. The moment of silence stretched long, and she wondered if he’d lost his nerve. Only somewhat startled when his head jerked upright, face aflame and hand grasping the crook of her own. 

“Rin-nee!”

Rin blinked slowly, and after a pregnant paused muttered, “…. Yes?”

His hair fluffed as he drew in a deep breath then jerked his head downward in a clumsy bow, yelling at the top of his lungs. “Please marry me!”

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Several things came to Rin’s attention all at once — Kimi hiding her smile behind her hand, Izayoi sputtering around the rim of her tea and covering her mouth with her sleeve, Toga snorting loudly as he shook with face in hand, and Sesshomaru’s widening eyes. Oh, this wasn’t good.

Rin knew she should have asked Inuyasha’s intentions when the gifts started coming daily. Flowers, freshly picked from the gardens, presented beneath her nose by a shaky hand. His ears pressed firmly to his head when she took them and pretended to look them over. Pressing a kiss to his cheek or ruffling his hair to see his starry-eyed stare and wiggling ears before he took off again, likely on another adventure, or to find something else to impress her with. His presence was often right by her side even when Sesshomaru was present or when she was in a meeting with other dignitaries, protective the moment someone raised their voice at her or seemed aggressive. One arrogant yōkai commented that it was as if she had her own little guard dog, and once Inuyasha’s elder brother caught wind, not a word was said again.

Although, their suspicions were there, and Sesshomaru seemed skeptical of all the times Inuyasha chased after her — surely, it couldn’t have been.

And yet it was.

Blissfully unaware of the destruction he was unleashing, Inuyasha held onto her hand cheerfully, his smile wide and toothy. “Then we can be together all the time!”

Rin’s eyes softened and she sighed. He really was an adorable little one. And though his intentions were in the right place, she didn’t think he understood the gravitas of marriage. The thought crossed her mind to tell him the nature of her needing to leave often. Sesshomaru was accustomed to it, as was Kimi, and Toga. Izayoi and Inuyasha were new to their lives, thus still learning the nuances of her duties to the West. As explanations and considerations crossed her mind, they were all tarnished by the familiar baritone coming from behind.

“You’re late, little brother.”

Rin turned slightly to find Sesshomaru staring imperiously down his nose. 

Inuyasha clung to Rin’s front, and she could see the moment Sesshomaru’s brows furrowed. “Am not,” Inuyasha groused and hugged her as tightly as he could. 

A quick glance passed between Kimi and Toga while Izayoi sighed gently, shaking her head. The brothers didn’t argue very often, but when they did, it often started like this. Rin looked to them for help, but Sesshomaru didn’t seem finished. 

His eyes narrowed and lips set to a scowl, and Rin worried for his rebuke when he said, “Rin is _my_ wife, Inuyasha.”

Silence reigned once more . Rin blinked at Sesshomaru in surprise, catching Toga giving Kimi a toothy smile while Izayoi cupped her cheek and cast a worried look at Inuyasha. However, the reactions weren’t what dampened Rin’s response, but the admittance. True, they’d been married for a century or two, but Sesshomaru never outright _admitted_ it. Especially not in front of so many people — yes, they were family, but he had his pride. Attempting to glean the meaning behind Sesshomaru’s boldness, Rin startled by Inuyasha’s irate huff and jabbed finger pointing at Sesshomaru in disdain.

“Is not!” He shouted, turning his sharp golden gaze on her. “Right, Rin-nee?”

Rin sighed. How had she managed to get into the middle of this? As entertaining as it was, she didn’t want to cause an irreparable issue, but Inuyasha seemed wholly set on marrying her. Or on going to war against his brother simply to guarantee that he had someone to play with. Rin smiled beatifically, setting the flowers aside and drawing him into her arms. Inuyasha became pliant, and the ire eased from his face, replaced with sweet contentment. 

“Well, what makes you think I’m not?”

“Well…” Inuyasha’s voice trailed off as she rubbed her fingers through his hair, brushing shy of his ears, the rumbling deep in his chest bringing a smile to her face. “Sesshomaru doesn’t like head pats.”

On that, she would have to disagree. There were moments when they were alone in which she was drawn to playing with his hair. Malleable wasn’t a word associated with Sesshomaru — rigid, firm, disciplined — but when she combed her fingers through his mane or touched his face, he softened like wet molded sand in her hands. 

With a quick glance at Sesshomaru, the daiyōkai seemed to have removed himself from the conversation entirely, turning his head and glaring at a fascinating portion of the fusuma. Rin bit her lip to stifle a giggle, rubbing her fingers across the back of Inuyasha’s head. 

“It’s okay, Inuyasha. Even though I’m married, I’ll still pat your head whenever you want.”

Puffed cheeks and downturned eyes tugged at her heart, but just as quickly as Inuyasha’s downtrodden expression made its appearance, he glanced up at her and frowned. “… Hugs and kisses too?”

Rin smiled a bit. “Whenever you like.”

His smile returned in earnest. He hugged her fiercely as he squeezed her and buried his face against her stomach, only deigning to move after a dozen head pats and a squeeze, taking a spot pointedly at her side. As the talk started up again and Rin sipped her tea, she glanced down at Inuyasha and could have sworn she saw him stick his tongue out at Sesshomaru.

She sighed internally, taking another long sip of her tea.

This was bound to go well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, to be young and wanting to marry simply so you can have head pats all day long. I’m glad that Inuyasha’s introduction to Feathers In The Wind is a cute little ditty like this. He and Sesshomaru have an entirely different relationship than they do in the canon verse, though they do argue like brothers do. Rin, to her amusement and dismay, is caught in the middle of their bickering with little hope to resolve it. 
> 
> After all, all is fair in love and war.
> 
> For more updates on my works and the general rundown of what I’m up to, find me on Twitter at **unlockthelore**. You can also find me on Tumblr, Instagram, and Pillowfort. For my original fiction, check me out on Tapas where I’m writing the novel **Legend of the Four Elemental Heroes**.
> 
> As always, thank you so much for reading and see you next time.


	12. Vacancy ( Sessrin, Fukai Mori AU )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kasugayami Heights isn't what Sesshomaru imagined it to be but all he needed was a place to lay his head. Not comfort, not luxury, and definitely not this surprise.

**Vacancy**

Sesshomaru knew this wasn’t a good idea. He felt it with every creaking step up the half-sunken metal stairs hugging the wall of the decrepit complex. Kasugayami Heights, a misleading name considering how rundown the apartment building appeared — squat with a single floor occupied by the landlady while the upper ones were squashed on either side with the view of buildings, trash-ridden alleyways and fire escapes spilling over with waste.

He ducked his head beneath a window sill where a verdant fern outgrew its pot, warding away the canine at his heels from inspecting the ivy crawling up the wall. His nose wrinkled at the stench slipping past the cracks in the doorway, looking over his shoulder at the sniffing pup.

“Ah,” he called, arching a brow when the pup’s ears perked and coal-black eyes flickered to a pale greenish-yellow before returning to their normal shade. “Let’s go.”

He needn’t look back to see whether the pup followed, hefting the duffle bag over his shoulder as a second pair of paws fell in line beside his footsteps. The second floor was considerably noisy — muted arguments, television static and the hiss of a tea kettle, a cat’s yowling preluding the tell-tale crash of ceramic. Cracked concrete scribbled on with chalk drawings and old stains scuff beneath his boots.

A grimace settling on his face when something sticky clung to his heel and he glared at the gum threatening to seep into the soles’ dark grooves. With a soft sigh, Sesshomaru shouldered off his bag and carrying case, propping them up against the rusted steel railing separating the walkway from an untimely demise to the alley below. 

Fishing in his pocket for the calling card the landlady slipped into his hand, he suppressed a roil of disgust at the memory of her wink, and began to pick the gum from his heel. Around him, the city seemed to come alive and his ears twitched at every noise. The distant howl of the train rolling across tracks, a growl overhead from a passing serpent transport disappearing into the wispy clouds drifting past a blue-black sky. Glancing down, the string of lanterns lighting the land lady’s porch lit up the brick walls of the surrounding buildings and the cars parked in the lot’s faded parking lines.

Sesshomaru leant his elbows against the railing, flicking the ruined calling card’s unbent edge between his claws, allowing his mind to drift. His father’s estate would have easily encompassed most of this block let alone the entire street. It would’ve been less noisy and crowded, nature allowed to sprawl as it was meant to rather than be strangled in the cold steel of man. He frowned slightly, drawing back with his hand grasping the railing. With a tug, he could’ve pulled it free and flung it in the lot below. Shoddily made, it would only last for a few decades, and he hoped to not be residing in the building when it inevitably caved.

He tossed the card in a nearby trash can and lifted his belongings, starting up the next flight of steps. It was easier to fall in the rhythm. Step, step, step, _turn_ , step step step, _turn_. Eventually, the doors began to blur together and he only noticed his destination was reached when the view of the lot was a lot further and the sky was closer. The cover provided by another floor of stairs was replaced by an awning and he glanced around, mentally counting back to how many flights he climbed as Ah and Un sniffed around the doors and windows.

Rustling around in his pocket, Sesshomaru pulled out a key and the note it was curled up in, thumbing the former and uncurling the latter: 

**Apartment 504 is all yours — ♡**

A sigh parted his lips. The landlady’s attempts to flirt with him were going to be an issue already. Crumbling the note, he pressed his claws to it and let his poison erode it. “Ah, Un,” the canines lifted their heads at the same time and turned to look at him. “504.”

They looked toward one another then began to inspect the doors purposefully, eventually coming to one at the end of the hall. Sesshomaru followed along, thumbing the strap of his carrying case as he looked up at it. The door henge seemed to be intact and there wasn’t a strange smell coming from it. All he could tell was the strange hint of flowers. Brow raised, he shifted the key and opened the lock, hearing the tumble of a deadbolt and the gentle chime of a chain. 

Pushing the door open, Sesshomaru glanced around the narrow walkway and raised a brow at the genkan. It seemed recently swept without any dust or grime. He stepped inside and shifted slightly for Ah and Un to follow him. As he shut the door, the chain lock swung and he raised a brow at it, deciding not to lock it. 

His boots pulled off and set aside, a nod to Ah and Un as they waited aside, following them with his eyes as they raced down the hallway into another room. Scanning the ceiling and walls for any blemishes or deterrents, Sesshomaru hummed to himself and followed after them. The hallway opened up to a sizable room where a kitchen comprised one wall, counterspace topped with aging wood and a sink dripping rhythmically to the scratch of Ah and Un’s claws across the floors, an island counter separating it from what he assumed was the living room. 

Sesshomaru raised a brow as he stepped inside, keeping his belongings close to him as he inspected the furnishings. The couch was an appealing albeit considerably aged shade of cream, a quilt neatly folded over its back adorned with sunflowers and orange-green tassels. A television sat upon a small shelf spilling over with cases depicting the faces of movie stars and video game characters, manga books organized by volume and series, and textbooks he didn’t feel the need to look at too closely. 

His eyes narrowed as he stared down at the chabudai folded in the corner, or the windowed terrace facing the western wall allowing a view of the sky. With how high the apartment was in its building, he could see over the tops of the neighboring buildings. It was appealing but he was gradually becoming aware of something.

Someone else was living here.

Almost as if confirming his thoughts, the deadbolt tumbled and he snapped a glare over his shoulder as the door opened. Ah and Un abandoned their search of the apartment, retreating to his side. Light spilled into the doorway with a gentle humming tune, interrupted by a soft ‘huh’. 

Whoever it was must have noticed that someone else was there as well, and Sesshomaru lowered his carrying case - loathing that he was unable to draw his sword. His claws would have been enough though.

Seconds passed achingly slow as he listened to the soft taps of someone removing their shoes and padding footsteps traveling down the hall. He sniffed the air, and frowned slightly.

A human. One that smelled of flowers, but human nonetheless.

Around the corner, a young woman emerged. “So you’re the surprise she was talking about.” She muttered aloud, and Sesshomaru wasn’t sure if she was addressing him or simply speaking to the atmosphere. He thought back to the note and the landlady’s insistence. Suspicion had already taken root but now he was certain.

Flicking his gaze over the woman, her dark hair fell well-past her was trapped beneath the hulking pack she hoisted up on her shoulders. An orange silk blouse with blooming sleeves revealed freckles along her shoulders and the black strap of her undershirt, blue jeans cuffed at the hem covered shifting legs and drew his attention to the dark lacquered wooden beads wound in an anklet. 

“No offense, but my eyes are up here.”

Sesshomaru rolled his gaze up to find her looking at him with a small quirk of the lips, revealing a sliver of teeth. “I wasn’t told someone else was here,” he said, refusing to smile in turn even for politeness’ sake, suspicious as her eyes fell to Ah-Un. 

“Neither was I.” She murmured, thoughtful and quiet for a moment, til she said, “Nice dragon.”

Sesshomaru’s brows raised just as Ah-Un loosed a growl, glaring at the woman in apprehension and disdain. Their glamour was to make it easier for them to travel in the city limits and he took great pains in helping them maintain their freedom while upholding a _semblance_ of normalcy. For her to have seen through it… 

The woman’s eyes remained alight, set in a youthful face, they were rounded and almost gentle in their observation of the snarling dragon. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise,” she reassured and the melody of her voice almost piqued his interest over the amusement at the thought that she _could_. 

“Well, I’m Rin,” she said. “No last name to give, really. It’s nice to meet you.”

He wondered how nice it could’ve been. Coming to your home to find that your landlady offered it to someone else - someone who was an _unknown_ at that. Yet, she seemed unbothered, tipping her head to one side and sunlit brown eyes flicked in Sesshomaru’s direction.

“And you.”

The slight teasing edge to her voice pricked his curiosity and embittered him at the same time. 

Rin pursed her lips, and the warmth that spread through him at the sight of her eyes waned when she glanced aside. “Not sure why no one mentioned, especially Haraiya,” her voice dropped to a low murmur but Sesshomaru could still make out the words. “She’s usually good about those types of things…” She huffed, a puff of a sigh with a shake of her head, a single plait whipped back and forth brushing against her cheek. Its green tie reminding him of the quilt across the couch’s back and the trees he sorely missed.

“You’ll practically have the place to yourself,” She ran her fingers through her hair, the curled ends refusing to be tamed even between her rolling fingertips. “I’m usually not home for more than a few weeks at a time.”

Well, at the very least he could be grateful for that. He wouldn’t be there much either but the less interaction he had with a stranger after a hunt - the better. Sesshomaru turned his head away though he noticed the look she gave to him, likely expecting an introduction. The thought to brush her off crossed his mind but a chiding voice in the back of his mind reminded him of his _manners_ , much to his chagrin.

“… Sesshomaru.”

Rin perked up at that and smiled, blindingly bright, her cheeks rounding and eyes squinting. It confused him as much as it made his stomach turn. Not unpleasantly, he noticed, doubly confused when she shambled forward and crouched down - hunched slightly beneath the weight of her pack to address Ah-Un. 

“And you?”

Sesshomaru blinked slowly. That smile. What was she smiling so happily for? Or addressing Ah-Un as if they could speak to her in this form. Or would for that matter. Strange, he decided. This woman was definitely strange. 

Still, he felt compelled to speak, his mouth moving without his permission. “Ah-Un.”

Three sets of eyes turned to him, one pair brown and inquisitive while the other two were coal-black and wondering. Sesshomaru considered their silent question and the size of the apartment then nodded, stepping aside. Rin seemed to notice something was amiss and he was _almost_ impressed when she stepped back as Ah-Un joined together, growing in size and changing shape. Their true form taking up most of the walkway between the island counter and the couch back. Mane bristled and nostrils flaring as they stared down at Rin with slitted pupils and yellowed eyes narrowed. 

Sesshomaru glanced at her, almost expecting some sort of exaggerated reaction only to find her standing and staring up at the scaled muzzles baring fangs.

“… Well, aren’t you beautiful?” She said in a breathy whisper, and Sesshomaru recoiled. Ah-Un blinking at her with both sets of eyes then tipping their heads to the side, leaning down as she reached up to them.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ah-Un. I’m sorry for startling you…” Her apologies were unneeded in Sesshomaru’s eyes but Ah-Un regarded her with serious contemplation then leant down to her hands to his surprise. “I won’t give you away to anyone, I promise…”

Ah-Un huffed, thin wisps of smoke spilled from their nostrils but they seemed appeased enough. Sesshomaru looked away to the small light set in the ceiling above the kitchen and the lamp tucked off in the corner of the living room. Most of her effects were sparse and neatly kept, or at least in their own place. While he had no need for a kitchen or entertainment, he didn’t want to clean after someone else. 

“Well, I suppose I know what the extra room can be used for now.”

He looked back to Rin and saw her looking at him, a tiny smile on her face as she finished petting Ah-Un. 

“Come on, this way.” 

She turned on her heel, hiking up her pack again. A number of charms and chains hung from it with talismans slapped over zippers and pockets. Was she a priestess? He narrowed his eyes, trying to find the reiryoku seeping off her but there was none. She seemed human - ordinary albeit strange. 

A satisfied groan filled the silence and Sesshomaru glanced at Ah-Un, the dragon laid on their belly with their heads resting on their paws, tail curled close. The picture of comfort.

“You’re satisfied with this?” Sesshomaru asked quietly, and the lack of a response gave him his answer.

Sesshomaru followed after the trail Rin left, following the scent of flowers down a hall too narrow for him to allow his carrying case to rock freely at his back. Rin seemed to have some difficulty herself but expertly slipped toward the door at the end of the hall, holding out her hand as she turned to face him.

“That one’s yours,” she pointed at one of the doors on the left directly across from the one on the right. 

“Mm..” He glanced at the one on the right, noticing the sutras along the handle and pasted over the henge. 

Rin seemed to notice then laughed. “Don’t worry about those. We’re not exactly in the safest part of town and I just wanted to be prepared in case.”

Sesshomaru raised a brow at the reassurance but said nothing else, opening the door to his own room. It looked as if it hadn’t been touched at all. The floors and walls bared, outlines in dust from furniture that may have been there but was moved out at some point. A window with a cracked frame, a faint breeze coming through.

“Whenever you start moving your things in, be careful of how narrow the hall is.”

He glanced back at her in time to see her draw a finger over the sutras. Each one slicing in half and fluttering to the ground in ashes, vanishing before they could touch the floor. With her door cracked open, he could catch a sliver of her room. Colorful and decorated, a string of lights illuminating her as she stepped inside. Her eyes caught his own over her shoulder and she smiled, giving a little wave before she shut the door behind her.

Sesshomaru blinked slowly. What an odd woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all, I'm back! So I know that some of you may have noticed that Feathers in the Wind is now capped at 15, and that'll be for the time being so I can focus on other projects! I really enjoy writing this and I'll come back to it some time in the future when my other projects in the Inuyasha fandom are wrapped up and I've got more free time - but please enjoy these last few and let me know what you think and what you'd love to see.


	13. For All Time ( Inukag + Moroha )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moroha has a question and while Inuyasha knows the answer, he doesn't like the implications behind it.

**For All Time**

Inuyasha gradually realized how much of a saint his mother had been and how little he understood of children. Moroha was almost as brash as he’d been when he was a child. Running around, getting into trouble, wanting to play but her games were often hazards to her own health or others. She was mischievous in a way he’d seen with Kagome and her schemes brought no small amount of complaints. It wasn’t often. Far and in between, his daughter was a complete angel, but she was a kid and kids were bound to get into mischief. He didn’t hold it against her although he did make sure to be just as firm as Kagome was. Even if she was like him, he wanted her to at least avoid some of the pitfalls he did. 

As long as he could help it that is.

So when Moroha came running to him, tears in her eyes, Inuyasha expected the worst but hardly cared of what it would be. His little girl was upset and she barreled into his arms - crying her lungs out - her chest swelling like a balloon then deflating in harsh ragged sobs. Inuyasha held her tight, letting his sleeves fall over her small form to shield her from the world. His eyes narrowed and focused on the clearing around their home before he glanced down at the top of her head.

Her eyes, big and brown and absolutely impossible to ignore, were wet with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Internally, Inuyasha panicked. He hated that she had Kagome’s eyes. He could hardly stand seeing _her_ cry, let alone his own daughter. Snapping at himself to get it together, Inuyasha wiped away her tears and tried to keep the panic from his voice, “What happened, Moro?”

She rubbed at her red-rimmed eyes when his fingers fell away, petulant but needing as she clung to his sleeve. “Papa… you won’t leave me alone if I’m not good, right?”

“ _Hah_?! Of course not! Who the hell--” He trailed off at the tears brimming Moroha’s eyes and softened his voice. “Where’d you get an idea like that from?”

Moroha sniffed hard then rubbed a finger under her nose. “Hijitaro said if we’re not good, our mamas and papas will go away,” she grumbled, her voice barely audible.

Inuyasha sighed, rolling his eyes. Of course it would be Hijitaro, the man couldn’t keep his spirits just like he couldn’t keep his opinions. Laying his hands on her back, Inuyasha patted gently when Moroha began to hiccup. “Moro, don’t tell your mama this, but Hijitaro is an idiot and you shouldn’t listen to him. He drinks all the time anyway..”

Moroha peeked up at him, lower lip jutting in a pout. “But Mushin drinks a lot too and Miroku-oji-chan listens to him…”

Inuyasha glanced aside. “He’s a different kind of idiot…” He sighed and pulled back his hands, tucking his fingers beneath Moroha’s arms, then lifting her up and setting her on his lap. “And besides, me and your mama aren’t going anywhere. Even if you can’t see us, we’re always right there.”

Moroha wiggled about, making herself comfortable in his lap, and once she was swaddled with his sleeves tucked around her - she looked up at him, her brown eyes reminding him of the earth after a fresh rainfall, glistening and richly dark in color. She seemed so small now and Inuyasha’s heart ached. “How?” she asked, startling him out of his thoughts of his mother and how she held him just like this. 

“Mm…”

What would his mother say? No, what would _Kagome_ say?

“Because we made a promise.” Like the goddess she was, Kagome answered the question he hadn’t voiced, the hut’s door sliding open and both he and Moroha turned around to find her there. Sleeves rolled up to the elbow and hair tied back, a sweet smile curved her lips, rounded her cheeks, and squinted her eyes. He could barely see the wetness that was there and his heart broke. “A promise to always be there for you, and you can’t break a promise.”

He startled when she called for him, at a loss for words. Moroha leaning over the side of his arm to openly gawk at her mother as she approached. Kagome knelt down beside them and reached out, her fingers brushing Moroha’s cheeks and finding the tear streaks that hadn’t yet dried.

“Right Inuyasha?”

She looked up at him and Inuyasha stiffened up, unsure of what to say when Moroha turned her gaze to him as well. Out of the three of them - he knew he had the likelihood of living the longest. That one day, they would both be gone and he would be alone with their memories. Was it the same for his mother? Was that why she cried and hugged him so tight he could still feel the impression of her arms centuries later?

“Papa…?” Moroha asked, clutching the shoulder of his suikan and Inuyasha snapped back to focus, surprised by the blurriness of his vision. “There, there…”

She patted his shoulder. Her small hand pressing with a loving strength. Inuyasha sniffed and pulled his arm back, wrapping it around Kagome to hug them both to his chest. Her trembling shoulders pressed against him and he held tight, allowing them both to keep him in a vice.

As they’d keep him for the rest of his life.

“That’s right…” He sniffed, burying his face against Kagome’s hair then Moroha’s red ribbon. “We’ll always be together. Always…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think that it's poetic on the last day of September, and only a few days out from the release of Yashahime, we have a little bit of Inukag to both brighten our spirits and hopefully bring a little smile. I really hope they find their way back to Moroha and they're all happy in the end. I don't know how this series will turn out but you can bet I'll be there to write along the way.
> 
> Thank you as always for reading!


	14. Hush ( Sessrin + Towa & Setsuna, Fukai Mori )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A somewhat rude awakening brings Rin a loving sight.

**Hush**

At some unholy hour of the night, shadows danced along the back of Rin’s eyelids as someone softly murmured her name and threatened to rouse her from a pleasant doze. Warm and nestled beneath a den of blankets swaddling her in sleep’s comforting embrace, she shrugged off the gentle shakes to her shoulder and light nudging. Throwing an arm over something small and shifting at her front while the blankets seemed to shift over her, groaning as they lifted. Her eyebrow twitched at that. 

When did blankets groan?

Tiny lights floated overhead, glowing and swaying between two bed posts. Rin rubbed at her eyes and slowly the lights came into focus. A string of bulbs set between the bed posts knobbed wooden finials, each having a decorative flower carved into its face. Rin slowly realized that this wasn't her room and when she tried to sit up - the soft groan and shove against her stomach nearly winded her - and she realized this _wasn’t_ a blanket either. Half draped over her quilt-covered lap was Towa, snoring away raucously, while Setsuna had taken up a spot by her side. 

The bed wasn’t very big and Rin could’ve fallen off if not for the steady figure perched at her bedside, clawed fingers hovering over her shoulder. Blinking away the last vestiges of sleep and allowing her foggy mind to catch up to her mouth, Rin murmured, “Sesshomaru?” and gazed up at the man staring down at them with a softness to his eyes. His claws grazed the underside of her chin and Rin shivered, tipping her head up to allow him to inspect the slight bruise from Towa’s fist clocking her in the jaw. 

A pulse of youki, warm and glowing a faint shade of green, lit up the back of Rin’s eyelids and she sighed as the throbbing pain eased.

“You fell asleep…” 

Rin _almost_ wanted to tease him for stating the obvious but when she opened her eyes, she saw the look in his own and relented. “Sorry, I promised them a story… and we might have gotten carried away.”

“Is that what you call it?” He glanced away and Rin followed suit, taking in the number of toys strewn across the floor. Books left propped open outside of forts constructed from pilfered pillows and blankets around the manor. She’d be hearing it from Jaken at some point but for now, the girls were happy - and once they knew their father returned - they’d be even happier. 

“Well… something like that,” Rin giggled, the sound choked in her throat when a soft touch pressed to her forehead, brushing aside her bangs in its pursuit to leave a kiss against her skin. It was strange seeing Sesshomaru dressed formally now. After so much time seeing him in jeans, loose-fitting t-shirts and _comfortable_ \- she couldn’t help but feel that he was out of his element - and somehow wasn’t at the same time. 

Rin stared up at him as he pulled away, shivering as his palm cupped her cheek. 

She wasn’t sure how they had gotten here but as Sesshomaru leant close to kiss her gently, she found she didn’t care.

Not as long as he came home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the eve of Yashahime, I _had_ to post this one. 
> 
> It was too cute for me to write out and when I actually finished it, I read it over a few times and thought that this was one of the sweetest little drabbles I've come up with thus far. In Vacancy, we got to see Sesshomaru and Rin's first meeting. _This_ is a _while_ after that when Towa and Setsuna are young. There are a few key things here that sticks out to me but I don't really want to give them away in case I continue this AU later on down the line. Anyhow, I'm so glad to be sharing this pre-Yashahime fervor with all of you!
> 
> Thank you so much as always for reading and check me out on Tapas, Twitter, Instagram, Pillowfort, and Tumblr at **unlockthelore**!
> 
> See you again!


	15. Spelling Out Your Doom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin receives a visitor and defends her honor only to make another problem in the same breath.

**Spelling Out Your Doom**

“Aunt Rin, Aunt Rin!”

Rin held the pouch of _highly_ corrosive dust tightly and as far away from her niece who’d barreled into her legs without pause. Moroha clung tightly to her waist and squeezed with all of her might. The warmth and pressure barely felt beneath the layers of cloths Rin wore and she’d made a mental note to remind Kagome to give her daughter _another_ bath. Although, she could’ve done it herself, considering Moroha had already escaped from her family’s quarters in the Western Palace. Blowing a sigh out of her nose, Rin juggled the pouch in one hand and cradled the back of Moroha’s head with the other.

“Moro, what’ve I told you about running into my atelier?” She asked, straining to keep a straight face when Moroha lifted her head, a smudge of red making her nose glow.

The little girl seemed to think it over while making a game of using Rin as a climbing post. Her bare feet pressing into the lapels of Rin’s apron as she struggled for a hold. “Knock before,” Moroha grunted, reaching up and barely brushing against the end of Rin’s braid. “Aunt Rin _help_ …!”

As Moroha started to slip, Rin grasped the back of her yukata and lifted her up, letting her perch on her hip. It was a struggle to remain firm with her. Moroha’s nose wrinkled as the red powder slipped into her nostrils, a few heaving breaths coming before she sneezed. The droplets caught in a well-timed handkerchief clasped over her nose by Rin’s waiting hand. A few of the kodama took the pouch with care as they went to place it back where it belonged. Moroha sniffled and rubbed at her eyes, giving Rin a watery smile.

“Well, what are you doing this way so late?” Rin asked, tucking the handkerchief back into the strap of her belt. With a flourish of her hand the lanterns began to dim one by one as she turned to leave the room despite Moroha’s protests. “Your parents are going to be looking for you.”

Moroha threw her arms around Rin’s neck, cheeks puffed and face absolutely adorable. “I _know_ , but I asked Mama and she said I should ask you and you were still up because Uncle said you were, so I came to ask you instead.”

Rin tweaked the tips of Moroha’s hastily-tied ribbon. She must have put it on hurriedly before she left her parents’ side. “Ask me what?” Rin retorted, reaching up to straighten it as best she could with Moroha’s swaying. 

The door to her atelier slid shut behind them and she didn’t bother to glance back although Moroha did and gaped openly, looking up at Rin in disbelief then gesturing.

“That!” She shouted, then winced when the echoing silence returned. Her voice lowered when she continued, saying, “You’re magic, right Aunt Rin?”

“Magic…?” 

Moroha nodded so quickly that her head was almost a blur, her eyes wide and her smile stretching from ear to ear. “You’re magic! You have to be, that’s why everyone calls you a witch, right?”

Rin’s lips curved up ever so slightly at the corners. It was only a matter of time before her moniker as the Witch of the West reached the ears of the children. Although, she preferred their wide-eyed optimism to the real reason for it.

“Well, something like that.”

“I knew it!” Moroha shouted, and Rin barely hid a chuckle when she blanched and peered around the corner of one of the corridors they passed, as if one of her parents would appear out of nowhere. “That’s why you use all of that weird stuff.. and read all those scrolls, right?”

“Well, your mom uses some of the same stuff,” Rin pointed out, tilting her head. “And she _does_ read a lot.”

Moroha seemed to think that over then her eyes grew wide as a conclusion was reached. Rin hoped Kagome would forgive her but that did give her some time to avoid the questions of _what_ she did in her atelier. Only a few people knew that and she wasn’t keen on sharing it with _everyone_. 

For a short while, Moroha vollied off small questions and Rin could tell that some were based off of stories from Kagome’s time. She managed to convince Moroha that she didn’t have a familiar in the form of a cat, and that A-Un wasn’t a familiar or her loyal steed, Jaken wasn’t some servant under her spell, and she _certainly_ didn’t cackle. Although the last received a great deal of skepticism and Rin began to wonder if she _did_ cackle. And if so, why hadn’t anyone told her before? 

“So does that mean you can make Uncle Sesshomaru do what you want?” Moroha finally asked, and she seemed to be dozing off, her head resting against Rin’s shoulder as she lazily pet the notches of Rin’s braid.

Rin thought about it. There were too many nuances to that question for a non-innocent answer, but in the lighter regard, she had to say, “Well, I guess so.”

Her husband was accommodating to her needs for affection and his presence. They were needs he shared as well regardless of how he tried to seem otherwise. And she asked little of him beyond that, so if the stipulations were what _she_ wanted — then it was quite easy. 

“Can you show me?” Moroha asked.

Rin’s brow furrowed. “Show you what?”

“Mm.. mama said dogs in her time knew lots of tricks, maybe you can use one of your spells to make Uncle Sesshomaru do a few.”

Rin snorted harshly and wobbled mid-step, nearly staggering forward until she caught herself. _Sesshomaru_ , of all people? Doing tricks like a dog? The thought of him in his true form peddling around at her behest was almost too much to bear and she shook her head, noticing her niece’s hopeful look.

Honestly, what had she gotten herself into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> So, you know how I said that this would be the last chapter of Feathers In The Wind for awhile. I did mean that.. at the time.. but admittedly, I really want to do spooky things and try out new ways of writing. So, I might keep the series running for a little while longer. And with that being said, did you _see_ the first Yashahime episode?! It was amazing! Or maybe I'm just starstruck. Either way, I'm happy that we got a sequel and I can't wait to see what happens.
> 
> Let's see, anything else..
> 
> Not off the top of my head, I'm afraid.
> 
> I'm grateful that you've all been keeping up with my work and thank you so much. See you later!


End file.
